


Prisoner's Task

by then00dle



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, fan-au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 06:53:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 37,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29880735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/then00dle/pseuds/then00dle
Summary: From Mercury's adventures with Yang in "Prisoner's Gold" (the prequel and an actual fic about yangxmercury), this fic goes into Mercury's adventure with the people Yang left him with as he finds a way to get his best friend Emerald out of Salem's clutches.This is a sequel to Prisoner's Gold, and won't make sense unless you read it first!Mercury has just saved Yang from this group of unruly misfits, however, part of their deal was that Mercury had to travel with them. As heartless and troublesome as these guys seem, Mercury learns about how and why they all got together and formed a group, and how they are all just fucked up kids in a fucked up world just like him.
Relationships: Gauntlets and Greaves - Relationship, Mercury Black/Yang Xiao Long
Comments: 11
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

Cray runs through the woods as fast as possible. He guessed that everybody would be on edge, but even he was starting to feel like it was all getting a little too much. Still, why do three guys need all that space and food in that huge truck in the middle of nowhere? Least they could do was share…

It had only been two days since the CCT was cut and all of Remnant was in the dark. Like always, it didn’t bother him too much. He would go into the villages that got attacked and stole what he could, like he did with every crushed-down village before. Only this time around, that truck full of guys beat him to the punch! And they chased  _ him  _ out! The audacity!

Cray hadn’t been getting any luck since the CCT event. The villages without people were filled with Grim, and the villages filled with people were worse. Trying to fight off grim while feeding their hunters and citizens- and then all these starving refugees, as well as all the bandits… In these times, people were just too desperate to let a thief like Cray go by unscaved. Cray hissed to himself as he felt his stomach violently grumble. He hadn’t eaten in almost a week, and that truck of boys- maybe hunters? -They weren’t going to help him at all. Cray had  _ tried  _ to steal from them, but... Hopefully he could find refugees to steal from…

And as soon as this thought ran past his mind, boom. He caught a glimpse of dark blue hair sleeping on the floor of the forest. Cray stopped mid-track, humming to himself.

“Weird place for a nap…” He carefully approached the body, and as he got closer his guard dropped immediately.

Laying on the ground facedown was a girl with dark blue hair. She wasn’t sleeping, it was more like she collapsed here. On her back was another child- who couldn’t have been more than 3 to 4 years younger than her- bleeding heavy from his back. The wound bleed on top of the girl’s head and neck from the green haired boy's injury. It made a tiny pool on the ground under them. Cray backed up a bit and saw that there was a patchy trail of blood, and some of the blood was coming from wounds on the girl’s bare legs and feet. 

“Ouch” Cray sighed. He went a little closer and then completely dropped his guard. 

“What a bummer.” It was sad to see that some did not escape their village, but worst when they got this far only to fall from injuries. But these guys weren’t going to make it, so they probably won’t need their supplies, if they had anything at all...

Cray openly mocked a prayer as he went down to search for anything to eat on them-

“I’ll be taking this-”

A force like no other put Cray out of his thoughts- and almost out of his body completely. He snapped out of it as he looked at the strong white-knuckled fist almost breaking his wrist. He could not believe the strength of it. He looked at the girl who had his arm, holding his gase with such spite he almost felt like she could kill him with that stare. It felt worse than seeing a ghost- scarier than being attacked by a Grim- He controlled his tail and tried to calm down.

“No-” She puffed, covered in blood and bruises as she laid there defenceless. “-No- You-” She tried to pull him closer to bite him- do anything. She could hardly move her body at all.

“Whoa!” Cray tried to remove her grib, but she wouldn’t let him go, and tightened her hold. “Sorry, didn’t know you were awake-” Cray let his arm go slack in her tightening grip. He couldn’t feel his fingers anymore. He looked down at the boy on her back. “By the looks of it, you both won’t be awake for much longer, so-”

The girl tore him down to the ground, so they could see eye to eye. Her arm somehow got around his neck and he felt his throat get slammed into the dirt.

Cray was in shock. He felt cold sweat on his forehead. He took a steady breath to calm down as he watched her ice-pricing eyes.

“-Water” The girl gasps. “I’ll- Let- You- Go... For -Water.” 

Cay tried to laugh her off. “What? let me go to get you water?” The girl nodded. Cray rolled his eyes. “You guys won’t make it for that long-”

He felt the back of his head get pulled towards her, dragging his face on the ground. She got very close to him and forced out a harsh whisper: “We. Will.”

She pushed him off and he leaned backwards on the ground looking at her as she stayed laying down exhausted. He could just run away. And that’s what he’s plan was once he got to his feet and sang to her: “I’ll be right back then~”

He turned to run. He could not believe that this person on their deathbed was this strong to pin him down like that, lucky she was hurt, or else he would have been in big trouble. Before he could walk off he heard her go:

“Hey.” 

And maybe because he knew he wasn’t coming back, he wanted to respect this weirdly strong and determined person- if only faith was different, Cray would have been the one dead today, and definitely by her hand. 

He turned around to look at her. To his utmost surprise, the glare of death she had given him before was nothing to the look in her eyes now. 

It was almost funny to him, how this defenseless girl could have such an intense look as she laid there dying. She had every disadvantage, yet she looked at him stubbornly with the eyes to kill. And Cray couldn’t honestly in his instincts mock it at all. In fact, he felt more like a mouse in a big open field, staring straight up into the eyes of a hawk flying towards him. He froze as her gaze stayed fixed on him.

“Whether you come back or not, we will survive.” She spits at him. “And if you don’t come back, I will hunt you down myself.”

Surprisingly, Cray let out a chuckle before he could control his nerves. He ran away on the spot. 

_ What the fuck What the fuck What the Actual FUCK? _

Cray ran away from the dying children in complete shock. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do. 

_ Just run you idiot  _ He knew he could just do that! But something in his gut made him feel like he had to do as the girl told him to. As if it was for survival. He didn’t know what pissed him off more, that instead of getting food for himself he was even  _ thinking _ of doing a charity, the bidding of injured kids. Or that sub-constantly he was already looking for where he could get water so that she wouldn’t kill him. How would she kill him? She’s a little hurt girl… 

_ That was just a bluff! Just get away from her as fast as you can  _

But Cray couldn’t let that idea sit well with him. He just had a feeling about that girl, that she really would track him down the second her wounds healed. He looked at his wrist, bruised and numb. 

Cray stopped dead in his tracks, and quietly listened to the wind in the trees for a bit. He could not believe that this was even a decision to make. He already knew what he had to do: survive. Sorry if that meant letting those guys die, it’s not like he’s responsible for it! He was sure she wouldn’t even remember his face in the state she was in. Wait, they’re left for dead though, they would never find him! Why was he…

It was too late. Cray looked back at the direction that the children were in, and looked back down at his wrist, and knew it was well too late. 

_ Fuck. _

He was just too curious about that girl. And how the hell she could give him a stare like that in her sake- he just couldn’t get the image out of his mind. Was she bluffing or not? He had to know. His legs moved him faster than before, knowing what to do next. He’ll just have to try harder this time if he wants to steal from those folks in their big old truck. 

\----------------------------

Mercury could not believe how this machine moved. The second he got back to the group, their outdoor over hanger area mysteriously became part of the truck, and the truck itself just seemed to be a meter or so more smaller; more compact. Once he got inside, things moved right away. the door behind him slammed and turned like he was entering a safe in a bank vault, and quietly and smoothly, they moved. Mercury could tell they were going fast, but there were no windows around. He was standing in a dense and narrow entrance at the end of some narrow and simple slabs of metal that resembled stairs that went up into a hallway with light at the top. Under the stairs he could clearly see the mechanics of the truck moving- and by all lords they were moving at break speed.

“Hey!” 

Mercury tore his gaze from the world under the narrow stair set to look up at the voice from the hallway. The wise ass with the long purple braid was standing there with a bit of a cocky grin. He nodded his chin to lead Mercury towards him as he moved out from the small frame of the doorway and into the light of the hallway.

Mercury took a heavy step up- metal clanging together- as he got up to the hallway, he had to duck his head to step inside. 

Not as narrow as the entrance, but the hallway was just as tight. But this hallway was long, and stretched for what seemed to be the front to the end of the ship. He saw the braid dude still walking, with a slight duck of his head to fit, towards the front where some noise was echoing from. Mercury followed. The hallway had some doors, some open, one looked like an engine room, but on second look Mercury saw a bunch of plants in a corner with a skylight and a messy mattress. And another door open that was just a pile of clothes intertwined with pipes in a cramped closet. Mercury was catching up to the guy, but before he could, the dude reached over to a door that was open, and closed it before Mercury could walk by. Mercury couldn’t help but look at the door as he passed, a little curious. Finally they were getting to the end of the hallway to where all the noise was coming from, but instead of a cockpit, they stepped into a large spacious room with no floor.

Well, there was a floor, but hardly. Mercury couldn’t hold his awe as he stared at the largest engine he had ever seen. Or one of the largest, heck he wasn’t keeping track. But still- it was amazing. The room was basically the engine, just with enough space between the nuts to get by. They made a make-shift ramp around the more dangerous parts- but no doubts about it- this room was basically the machine of the whole truck. He stared out as they walked down the stairs to the path. He was surprised that it wasn’t as noisy as it looked. Mercury looked down at the ground under the path, and he could finally see how fast they were going between all the large moving parts- and it made him dizzy. It was like they were going at rocket speed over the ground- he didn’t feel like they were going that fast at all, it took him off his balance. 

“Cool, right?” The guy called out to him as he kept moving through the room. “Just try not to touch it.”

Mercury chuckled as he looked at the top of the machine, just barely contained under the truck’s rotting roof as he followed. “Noted.”

They moved around the machine, and just like out of a story book, behind the engine was a small door, and Mercury almost laughed out loud that he would get to see someone as tall and lanky as this dude try to slip into that entrance. To Mercury’s dismay, he slipped in carefully and fluently. He looked back at Mercury to get him to follow suit. Mercury crawled in head first- but his foot got stuck-

“Wiggle your toe-”

Mercury almost rolled his eyes but he slipped onto his jaw. It gave him enough room to crawl up and get to his feet on the other side of the small entrance.

“Ha-” The guy chuckled. “Harder than it looks?”

Mercury gave him a grumpy pout before following him down yet another small hallway, but this time, it wasn’t just a straight shot hallway. This hallway connected to many hallways, there were stairs that came down from the cline that just hovered mid-length in the hallway that they had to duck under. Hallways that connected that look much longer than the width of the ship. They went downstairs on a walkway under the floor that seemed to put them back into the engine of the truck; connected with other walkways underneath the hallways above. Then went back up into the floor of the main hallway and finally to one door at the end of it all. 

The guy turned around to Mercury with a big old grin. “Shh.” He winked to Mercury as he pressed his ear towards the door. He stayed quite there, just grinning wildly to himself before looking back at Mercury with a nod. “Okay, It’s clear!”

Mercury almost felt nervous for a second- I mean, he did just threaten to kill these people an hour ago, and now he would have to live with them? Talk about awkward… He was ready to go inside, but then the dude in front of him put out his hand.

“Mercury right? My name’s Mauve, but you can call me anytime.”

“Oh-” Mercury looked at the hand offered out to him and took it, a bit surprised. “Yeah, I’m Merc- Wait what?”

Mauve laughed and put a hand on his shoulder. “Just kidding, just kidding- you can call me Mau.”

“I-”

Mau didn’t let Mercury continue, he just turned around and opened another vault-like door and ducked into the frame. Mercury followed suit.

Mercury stepped into a room beaming with light. The whole room was made up of glass walls, and Mercury could finally get a real idea how fast they were tearing through the fields. The room was large. At the very end of it was what had to be the cockpit, up some stairs on a railing on the glass, with a big blonde dude piloting. under the railing was just machine work, and loads of it. Down the stairs in front of them was a large space, on one end near the windows was a full on garden, and that garden seemed to stretch throughout the room, but it definitely started here. hanging in pots or rows near the windows, and cluttered in pots on the ground. On the other end was a large cheap table, surrounded by a kitchen in the corner with two fridges, a stove and a grill, and countless amounts of cupboards and food crumps. Mercury recognized a few of the people there sitting, putting ice on their wounds... In the middle was a large slap of wood, just a few inches off the ground, with an assortment of pillows and beanbags around it, along with papers, tools, and a bunch of nuts and bolts. Sitting there was Opal and the redhead swords girl, talking with a short dude and that monkey dude Cray. Behind them there was a corner next to the stairs leading to the cockpit with piles of screens. Some old and small, and few big and wide, he noticed a few game controllers as well. All but two monitors were off, and no one was in the crowded cluttered desk and chair in front of it all. As Mercury looked around to take it all in, everyone in the room got quieter and quieter. 

“Ah!” Cray hurriedly stood from his spot and stood on top of the short and wide wooden table. “He’s here!” Cray walked away as the 3 people he left at the table tried to reach for him to sit back down, and glared at him angrily as he walked through the room towards Mercury. 

Out of everyone there, Cray and Mauve seemed to be the only people not absolutely  despising Mercury with all of their intent. He watched as Cray moved closer to him, and Mercury wanted to glare at this guy too. He couldn’t quite put a finger on it, but this guy almost seemed like a younger, less crazier version of Tyrian. That seemed like too much of an insult- but this guy and his crazy nature and his complete lax to it just stood out like a sore thumb, the same way Tyrian’s would...

“Mau, thank you  _ so  _ much for fetching our new guest!” Cray took Mauve by the shoulders and spun him around, and Mau grabbed Cray and did the same with a large smile.

“Of course my love, anything for you!” He laughed, and it just seemed to annoy everyone even more. “But everyone hates you more now my darling!”

Cray dramatically dipped into Mauve's arms. “As long as you are with me, I can survive- you are all I need!”

“Darling sweet angel!”

“Sugar plum berry princess-”

“-Pumpkin homie pancake baby-”

“-The sunshine to my morning wood-”

“-No homo my lovo-”

“Enough.” Opal called out, not trying to hide her annoyance at all. 

Cray and Mauve didn’t falter what so ever, they let each other go and Cray put out a hand.

“Ha- anyway, welcome abroad! Let’s try to forget that whole ‘we’re going to capture you and you’re going to kill us’ situation we got into this morning, and put it all behind us!” Cray turned to Opal who kept glaring at him, and then he looked at the kitchen table and back at Mercury. “To be honest,  _ none  _ of us…” He said that last part loudly for everyone to hear. “... Got on this ride with a clean start, so let's have a fresh one- My name’s Cray, but you can call me... anytime.”

“Ha, too late- I already pulled that one.” Mauve winked at Mercury. Cray and Mau started having a little bit of a friendly tuffle as Mercury watched them. Mercury remembered Cray clearly. He only remembered Cray’s and Opal's names over the few hours they have known each other. But to Mercury, Cray seemed to stand out, to be almost as important to this group as their leader was. Which was just strange. Mercury wondered as he stared at Cray, just laughing there until he saw Mercury looking at him. He took Mercury around the shoulder to face him towards the rest of the group.

“Mercury, meet the gang! Gang…” Cray looked around almost like he wanted to push buttons. Mercury looked out at Opal and the other two on the floor, and the others at the table. Surprisingly, the person who looked the most beat-up at the kitchen table stood up first.

“My name’s Nyx.” She stated at him as she held a packet of ice on her cheek. Mercury recognized her as the short girl with the large maze / bazooka rifle. She was wearing all black, making the gold in the brown of her eyes really stand out on her dark skin. She had a sort of ease to her; he could tell she was pissed, but not exactly at him. She moved her free hand to her hip. “If you ever try to pull that shit on me again, you’ll get more than just my name next time.” 

Mercury sheepishly smiled. “Mercury.” He put his hand out as a wave. The guy across from her groaned as he looked at Mercury. He was the chain dude, with orange hair and dark skin.

“I don’t like that  _ we’re  _ keeping him… If he really is a target of Miss Mal then we…”

“ _ It’s decided.”  _ The short dude peaked up from his spot at the table next to Opal on the floor. “You guys already  _ fucked  _ what we had with her, this way we at least  _ know  _ we won’t go home broke!”

“Still, keeping someone like  _ him _ , when we  _ know _ how dangerous-”

“ _ Now _ you want to talk about what’s  _ dangerous _ ? Says the guy who literally was down to kill a  _ huntress student _ !”

“Guys! Enough with that-'' Another girl sitting at the kitchen table with white short hair called out. “Miss Mal took all our jobs from us! She has no idea that we know anything about what goes on in her ring, or who are the new faces on the search board- if anything we can say he threatened us because  _ he did _ !” She huffed with a bit of a smile at them all. “I say, we play dumb, won’t be too hard for some of you-” She looked at Cray and Mauve and stuck out her tongue, and they both persisted to stick their tongues out back. “-And we have some more fire power on the way through- so win win!”

“It’s not that easy-” The chain guy tried to cut in, but the girl with the white hair had already stood and took a step closer to Mercury to give him her hand. 

“I’m Ghost! Nice to meet you cool assassin dude. You better not try to kill me in my sleep, cause I’m faster-” She suddenly turned into light and disappeared before appearing at the cockpit, sitting on the shoulders of the blonde guy up there- who gave out a yelp of surprise. 

“-Than you!” 

“Ghost…” The blonde guy moaned. She disappeared off of him and appeared in front of Mercury to take his hand.

“Ahh, nice to meet you?” He carefully shook her hand- he couldn’t stand people with this much energy… Mercury looked back up at the big dude piloting. He remembered him a bit, the scaredy-cat wimp begging for the fighting to stop far away from the violence. Mercury decided not to pay him any mind. 

“Likewise!” Ghost nodded- she then turned to point at the chain wielder behind her. “That’s Ginger, he’s a prick.”

Ginger stood up from the table and almost slammed it. “I am not-!”

At the same time, the short dude at the low table spoke up. “Shut-up Ghost! You hyper-active walnut!”

“Gasp!” Nyx sarcastically rolled out as Ghost sarcastically and dramatically clutched her hand to her chest. 

“Haha,” Cray nudged Mercury. “And this right here is our mother hen, Ray.”

“Ah, now don’t you fucking dare-” Ray, the short dude with goggles and brown hair, started walking over to Cray with the strut of a stampeding elephant. He started berate Cray who just took it with a nodding smile.

“And  _ you- _ ” Ray suddenly stopped picking on Cray and stomped over to Mercury with his finger pointing straight at him like a snipper. Mercury felt like he had no choice but to cower to this short man. “-If you even  _ think  _ about double crossing us-”

“He won’t!” Mauve put up a finger in a very cheeky way.

Ray growled at him. “I know- but still-”

“But still, we can’t trust you.”

Opal had not looked at Mercury until this moment. They shared a look before Opal turned her glare away.

“Of course you know Opal-” Cray continued gesturing to Opal. “And this is her girlfriend, Relish.”

The silent girl with long red hair and wasn’t bad with a sword at all, was sitting and watching Mercury, almost with a look of curiosity, but it definitely wasn’t friendly. She said nothing but nodded at Mercury. 

Mercury ignored it. “Cool, is this everyone?”

“Not everyone,” Cray trailed off.

“Fern is being a baby and hiding with Cyan in her room.” Opal spat, not particularly looking at anyone.

“He’s taking care of her-” Ghost stated in angry confusion.

“He’s using her as an excuse not to train. I can’t keep babying him forever.”

“You’re too hard on him.” Ginger called out.

“Sorry, am I the only one living in a world filled with Grim where any person could come up to us to steal or kill us while having a good reason for it, because  _ this _ is what we live in? He needs to grow up, we aren’t in a place that’s nice to the weak. Imagen living in a world where people who kill others make more money then the people who feed them? Oh wait, nevermind.” She glared at Mercury, who only glared back. On his end, she was just pissed because she lost their fight and he’s not just going to listen to her lecture about how terrible of a person  _ he  _ is. She’s all up on her high horse now that she’s not planning on becoming a murderer while he still is one. It’s hypocritical- she just wants to say anything to give him a bite. He wants to bite her eyes out. 

“Guys, you need to lighten up-” Mauve chuckled to lighten the tension. “I saw in his eyes-” Suddenly Mauve’s face lost its brightness and went serious, like he had a sudden moment of shock. But he quickly ignored it and put back on his smile.

“-He’s not going to betray us, or harm us.”

Mercury looked at them all, he could see clearly who felt better by those words, and who was still on the edge. All he could do was stand there and hope for the best. If he wanted to find and get Emerald, there was no way he could do it alone with Salem on his tail. He glared down at Opal who refused to look at him. 

“Are you sure about that?”

A new voice from above broke through. The blonde dude did not take his eyes off the speeding lands before him as people looked up to him.

“Noah?” Ray called up to him.

It stayed quiet for a while as everyone waited for Noah to continue. 

“Yesterday, when we got that girl locked up-” Mercury felt a tinge in his stomach. 

_...Yang _

It wasn’t like he could miss her or even think about her now. But still, hearing that he left her to be their prisoner for almost a whole night… it angered him.

And then he had to forcefully take out the last images of his kiss with her from his mind. 

“-I had a chat with Floyd. Before you came back for the girl-'' Mercury snapped out of his confusion and it grew into anger. Noah took a chance to peek behind him to stare at Mercury for a split second- “-He said that he knew you were a killer-” Noah turned back to the rode again. “-just by the look in your eyes.”

That pissed Mercury right off. What the hell did he mean by that? “Which one of you is Floyd? Let’s have a chat just to see if we can straighten this shit up.”

“He’s off doing his own thing-” Mauve got much quieter now, standing in front of Mercury between his glare at Noah. Cray looked at Mercury, and then back at Noah, then to Mercury again.

“Hey hey, he wasn’t saying anything by it, Floyd is just the resident weirdo afterall-”

“I’m just saying-” Noah called out, his eyes focused on the task of driving their speeding machine over the hills as smoothly as possible. “I’ve got my eye on you.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a rough start, oh wait, its still rough as hell. Mercury hopes there's at least seat belts on this speeding truck cause he'll need to buckle-up for this journey with these guys.

“This  _ piece of shit _ again?” Ray grumbled, looking down at the faunus thief that was once again tangled on the ground, caught in Floyd’s neon pink arrow. Noah and Floyd looked down at him with Ray, who was just shaking his head at him.

“What’s this guy’s deal? Did you use to live here or something?” Noah asked, crossing his arms. “You know we can’t just let you  _ take _ -”

“Oh my god, please don’t lecture me again.” The theft on the ground sighed out, tail moving this way and that. “I’m kind of in a hurry-”

“Yeah I  _ bet  _ you are!” Ray yelled out. “Trying to get away with all  _ our _ shit  _ again _ !” Ray walked over to Floyd, who was just quietly standing there, not really paying too much attention. “Where did you find them?” Ray asked him, which snapped Floyd out of his daydreams. 

“He was just like- wondering around inside.”

“Yeah, it’s like, super confusing in there-” The theft lifted his face off the ground to say, and Noah just placed his boot on his ass with a little step-kick. “-Okay, yeah, but I’m like in a  _ real  _ hurry right now. And whatever, you guys stole from this ruined village first, and you don’t need  _ this _ much shit to-”

“We’re not-” Noah tried to start-

“- _ No  _ you  _ idiot _ !” Ray shouted as he stood over the wrapped up body on the ground to shout down at the theft. “We’re _ bounty hunters _ !”

“We are?” Noah asked, taking his eyes off their theft to look at Ray. “Aren’t we more, like, mission bandits?”

Ray dropped his guard to deadpan a look at Noah and took a step off over their captured thief. “Mission bandits? We’re not  _ bandits _ -”

“Yeah, but like, we’re not really  _ that  _ good at tracking people-” He turned his gaze towards the thief. “We were sent here to help cut off the outflow of Grim- we’re not scavenging. Not much payment, but what can you do in these times...”

“Yeah? Well  _ maybe _ someone’s looking for a little thief like  _ him _ .” Ray spat with a grin.

“-What’s the payment that tracking usually gives?” The theft shot out. It got Floyd out of his daydreaming again. And Ray just scoffed at him.

“A _ lot _ more, that’s what.” Ray rolled his eyes as he leaned into Noah. “Pick him up, let’s see if he’s on the net.” 

“-Now hold on-”The theft begged as Noah placed him onto his feet. “Now what if I said that _ I _ was a particularly good tracker-”

Floyd’s binds around the theft tighten- and Noah and Ray’s eyes suddenly grew very dark; Noah took out his gun from his belt holster, using his free arm to grab the neon aura rope to bring the theft closer to him and looked them in the eyes.

“Are you tracking us boy?” Noah’s voice almost cracked as he tried to sound intimidating, and it did not go unnoticed.

The theft let out a short chuckle that was quickly pulled out of him along with his breath- the pink rope tightened around him sharply. He looked over at the pink-haired lanky boy, who was frozen staring at one spot with an uncertain and unreadable face.

“Listen-” The theft began. “I’m not  _ after  _ anyone- I’m just- trying to help you guys out, I could be useful-” He felt the ropes loosen, only to go back tight again- he was starting to lose his breath. “I’m a theft, you’re right, but if you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours- I’m not after any of you- please- I’m- hurry-”

The theft took a deep breath in as the ropes loosened around him. He painted as he looked at the group around him, they kept observing him curiously until Ray finally spoke up:

“What do you mean?” Ray asked.

The faunus finally was able to catch his breath. “It’s my semblance, I’ll fill you guys in later~” And he winked. Ray stepped up with a finger looking like he might jab it right into the thief's eye, but Noah held Ray back to let the theft continue: “-But right now- I gotta get some water to some weird-scary dying kids.”

“What?!?!” Noah Dropped his gun as well as his jaw. “Children dying?!?! Where?!?!” 

\------------------------------------

Mercury only had the clothes on his back as he entered the spare area that he was meant to sleep in. Under one of the hallways, on the walkways above the moving machine under the actual interior, there was a spiral staircase that lead up to a hallway with latch doors leading to rooms on the ceiling. In the farthest corner was one room almost the size of a closet. With pipes that were basically the walls, and half the curved ceiling being a window- nothing else was in the room. Nyx, the one that lead him here, passes him up a pile of cloth as he steps up into the room.

“There’s a hammock in there.” She casually mentions.

Mercury looks at the thin hammock and then the small cramped room and then back down at Nyx with the question clearly on his face. 

Nyx only shrugged at him, not being able to look into the room fully at her height. “Do it diagonally?”

Mercury deeply sighed as he looked out at the room. He almost missed being tugged around by Mauve and Cray. But Mauve stayed behind when the group decided to chew Cray’s ear off. Mercury wondered why they even cared to, it wasn’t like Cray was going to listen. But then he looked down at Nyx as she waved out,

“See you later?” she walked cooly and calmly, with really no care in the world at all. Nyx, who didn't participate in Cray’s berating and even volunteered to take Mercury to his room, maybe to get out of the argument there all together. The pilot, Noah, also didn’t participate in the Cray’s beratement… Mercury started feeling angry again. He went over to close the slap of metal that was the door latch and it fell down with an echo, shutting him in his cramped room as he took out the hammock, looking for the best place to strap it up. 

_ “He knew you were a killer- by the look in your eyes.” _

What did that even mean? Mercury was baffled that this frighten chum had the fucking nerve- Staying quite trying to catch enough steam to ask the damn question- Mercury didn’t need people like that, heck the world didn’t- this guy didn’t even know what he was talk about. Who he was even talking to. Mercury wanted to bite his throat off. He couldn’t figure out how to untangle the string of the hammock and threw the whole pile of sheets on the wall. He almost kicked the wall but after seeing how rusted it was, he just groaned and leaned against it with his back and slid down to hold his knees. 

“Fuck.” Mercury spat. “I almost miss the Beacon rooms…” He looked at the pile of blankets and the hammock thrown out on the wall before him behind his knees. And suddenly a huge feeling of dread took over him. Where was this strength to go get Emerald coming from? While Salem was chasing him? While Hasel was literally on his tail? With literally no money, with his face being posted on underground rings for bandits and assassins- in the outfit he is wearing right fucking now-

Mercury, out of frustration, held on to his knees tighter and pushed them off him. He started looking at his outstretched legs feeling hopeless-

_ Shit... _

_ - _ but he couldn’t help it. He looked at them, and kept looking at them. Until the shine coming off his clogs started looking like dancing silver fire. He tried to look away- But then, just a slim part of the trimming from one of those sheets really stood out in his mind- the color almost filled the room the instinct he noticed it. Just a simple honey yellow that thinly framed a stained brown sheet. And suddenly, things felt light. Everything felt light. He didn’t know how or why the simple color could just completely calm him down like that.

_ … Yang. _

He almost smiled to himself. 

_ You got this. _

He felt let it was her voice in his mind encouraging him. And he almost felt guilty about it, if it wasn’t for the warmest feeling in his chest. He scooted over towards the pile, and started untangling the hammock. 

_ Yang _

He needed to keep his cool. Count his breaths. Calm down. Just remember who he is. What he is capable of doing. He loved how she centered him, the tough-love kind of way. Loved the way she was able to open his eyes, see more than what he expected. Love the way she…

He untangled the hammock and got up to tie it to some pipe. He looked back in his mind at Noah’s claim. He assumed the guy was too weak to say those things- assumed he was scared of Mercury- to say  _ anything _ but cower to Mercury... him stepping up made Mercury mad because he never expected it. Mercury laughed as he somehow got the knot tied on a thick pipe in the corner. He needed to stop doing that; expecting things. 

Mercury was laying on his low hanging hammock looking at the sky passing by over the window above his head, thinking how they were more on a train than on a truck. Until he heard a knock on the floor.

“Hello!” He almost groaned before he could answer for her not to open the latch, but Ghost had already let herself in- by appearing in white light next to the door in his room. 

“...Okay?” He sighed a little pissed. Ghost took no notice of it.

“Come with me! We got mission work dude!” She bounced on his door and almost laughed at his annoyed glance at her as he got up. “There's some kind of stealth mission, perfect for you and me!”

Mercury followed her out of the room and into the hallway. He had only been alone to himself for maybe 30 or so minutes. “Is that so?” He called out to her in a yawn. Luckily he was able to follow her back towards the main front room, as he was sure he couldn’t find his way through the hallway of mazes by himself. When they got into the room, they stepped down onto much of the crowd from before staring over Ray’s shoulder into the pile of monitors in the corner. 

“I got him!” Ghost announced to them as she quickly joined Ginger’s side. As Mercury got closer, he saw a new face in the crowd. The boy with green hair was standing close behind Opal, who did not tear her gaze from the screen to watch Mercury approach them. 

Cray poked his head out from leaning next to Ray, who sat on top of the pile of clutter on the only chair in front of it all.

“M-Mir-... Hey you!” Cray shouted out, giving Mercury a friendly wave as he stepped on over to him. “We were just talking about you~”

“Um, we were hardly considering it.” Ginger scoffed, and Ray hummed in agreement.

“Me and Opal can do it, easy.” Nyx stated. Mercury just noticed that she stayed sitting at the kitchen table this whole time, sipping from a clay mug.

“Yeah, but…” Ray kept reading the profile, and Mercury got a peak. He caught a glimpse at a picture, a middle aged woman. Ray continued:

“She’s not your  _ average _ retired outlaw, she’s worked for _ many _ organizations of  _ all _ kinds-  _ And _ she’s been on the run by at _ least _ -” Ray scrolled down the page a bit, using a keyboard to type in some script in another smaller monitor that seemed to control the movement to the other monitor with the profile. “-  _ three  _ different  _ huge _ underground syndicates! Like-  _ here _ \- Even  _ Roman Torchwick _ tried looking for her for the past _ eight years _ ! She’s trickier than what  _ we’re _ used to.”

“So what? Is she a Huntress or something?” Ginger called out.

Ray typed more to move the page back up towards the top. “No, she’s actually more of an accountant, actually…”

“How the hell is she this slippery then?” Relish grunted, taking her hands off from leaning on the desk to back up and stare at them all. Mercury took note that she would not look near him at all. 

“I don’t know…” Ray leaned back staring at the screen.

“She’s got some secret.” Opal watched the picture on the monitor. “I bet it’s got something to do with her semblance, or some other hidden talent she’s held onto for this long.” She looked up at her crew, and each held their attention on her. “Either way, she’s been doing this for years, and honed her methods.” She looked over at Ghost and Cray. “We need to understand her first, read her patterns; take a slow approach.”

As most of the crew nodded at each other and shrugged in agreement, Mercury was taken back impressed. He had the idea that Opal might have just been the bossy one, and not actually the leader these guys listen to. He was more put off that she actually could calm down enough to correctly read a situation. 

“Hey guys, made up your minds yet-?” Noah called out from the steering wheel. “Cause, we’re almost there-”

Opal waited until everyone nodded to her in agreement. Everyone but Cray gave her this, only looking at Opal with puppy-dog eyes. Opal shouted back up to Noah:

“We’re taking it.”

Ray put up a map on one of the larger screens after typing down a bit. “Yeah, three miles off the main-”

Noah sighed. “I know, I know! I already got the location here, everyone get ready for brake.”

The green haired boy seemed to perk up in shock as he looked at the other end of the room towards the door. 

“I- I... should warn Cyan.” He said as he looked out. Opal rolled her eyes and was about to say something- when Relsh subtlety held Opal’s hand to stop her, and Ghost only nodded to the boy.

“Also warn Flod-oo...” Ghost glanced at Mercury arching a curious eyebrow. He only stared back at her, trying to achieve a state of showing no emotion whatsoever. And then Opal turned her body towards Mercury to give him a glare. The green haired boy looked nervously between Ghost, Opal, and Mercury- and decided to get out of there. As he passed by Ghost, Cray grabbed him by the collar. 

“Ack-”

“Oh by the way-” Cray started, but then Opal grabbed him by the wrist and he immediately let go of Fern to genuinely look down at his wrist as Opal let go, giving her a shy and genuine smile. She rolled her eyes to it as Cray continued:

“This is Fern! He’s super cool~” Cray pushed on Fern’s shoulders a bit and he fell forward closer to Mercury. Fern quickly got his balance, and when he stood up straight, he took two small steps back away from Mercury to gawk at him. Mercury looked down at the boy and tried to give him a real friendly smile, but it came out more sheepish. He remembered the boy, he was the one that almost kicked his and Yang’s asses at the lake. But this morning, he was being a timid coward, just like now. And then Mercury pounded his fist over his open hand.

“That’s right!” He said out loud, not realizing his fast change of mood from serious bad-boy to a cartoony creepy sherlock-holmes. He leaned down at Fern, who just looked scared and confused as Mercury spoke: “You were with bubble girl! Listen, I need to know more about her semblance-”

Opal pushed him off before Fern could even back away. And the look Mercury gave to her and the look of disgust she gave him back made the air in the room feel like metal. 

“You want to start something?” Mercury huffed. 

Opal took one step forward and four people got between them. Ghost first, mostly protecting Fern in front of Opal- Ginger stood like a wall between them staring Mercury down- Relish was at Opal’s side, and Cray was in front of Mercury pulling his shoulders back.

“Easy~” Cray whispered, as Relsh and Ghost got Opal to stand back, Ginger did not stop his glare towards Mercury as he stood there. 

“What?” Mercury spat, looking over at Fern. “I just want to ask him something- I want to see that girl-”

Opal tore Ghost’s hand away- and Mercury was surprised it was to quickly clamp down on Ginger’s shoulder- who’s glare at Mercury only intensified as he tried to lean forward out of her grip. Opal angrily spoke up to Mercury: 

“Why? He doesn’t have to talk to you!” 

Mercury looked over at Fern who looked more than a little freaked out. Mercury looked at the rest of them who were also looking at him with judgment. 

He didn’t need to let them know! He had his own shit with those kids- he was getting more and more pissed off at how _ defense _ this whole group of bandits were with their shit-

“What do you want with Cyan?”

And as Mercury looked at Cray he snapped out of his anger. The tiniest whisper Cray spoke to Mercury for only them to hear, and a dark look in his eyes that was only shown to Mercury- caught Mercury completely off. He hadn’t seen this side of Cray. 

“You don’t need to know.” Mercury grumbled as he jerked Cray’s arms off of him. He gave them all a stink eye and he dropped his gaze on Fern. “I’ll drop it, whatever.” He placed his hands into his pockets and stormed off. The room stayed quiet except for Ray’s typing. Once he got towards the stairs up towards the door, he heard footsteps coming after him, with a whispering protest among the group. 

Surprisingly, Fern was right behind him as Mercury went to close the door. Fern stepped in as the door closed and Mercury just kind of watched him with a dumb-founded look of absolute confusion- he completely lost his rage from it.

“I-I… I- I’m going t-this way too!” Fern choked out, quickly running past Mercury and down the hallway.

“Oh…” Mercury panned out. “Well, that’s good, cause I have no idea where I’m going.”

Mercury followed the boy and Fern just glanced behind him every so often to get spooked like he was being chased by a ghost.

“Hey-” Mercury called out after he caught Fern doing it a third time. “I’m not going to hunt you down-” Mercury caught up to Fern “-Not until you show me the right way first-”

And Fern’s steps grew slightly faster. Mercury only chuckled at it- and Fern stopped dead in his tracks.

“You like- l-l-like-” He kind of lost his nerve when he turned to face Mercury, he placed his gaze towards the ground. “Y-y-you l-like s-scaring people? T-tormenting them?”

Fern worked up the nerve to chance a glance at Mercury. Mercury sighed deeply, letting the tension go off his shoulders.

_ “Don’t hurt the kid-”  _

Mercury felt like he could hear Yang beg him to not harm Fern in his mind still. He looked at Fern more openly this time. Yang is not someone who is just nice to someone because they’re a kid, is she? Not that night when she knocked him out at the lake- but this morning she asked Mercury not to harm him. It had to mean something. It had to mean Yang had a reason to like this guy. It had to mean this kid was good to Yang. And he could see it in the kid’s eyes. Mercury sighed even deeper as he kneeled down so he could be face to face with Fern.

“Naw, I mean, it’s funny. I… I’m just trying to release the tension. I don’t want to, like, actually freak you out.”

Fern kept watching Mercury as he stood back up, like he was waiting for more of what Mercury had to say. When Mercury just stood there watching him back, Fern turned a corner and went up the spiral staircase. 

Mercury followed, and as they got up to the floor with all the rooms on the ceiling, Fern went to opposite way he needed to go and Mercury couldn’t help but call out a little:

“Thanks.” With a wave of his hand. Fern stopped to peer back at Mercury, and this time really give him a good look.

“W-what…” Fern turned his whole body towards him. “What do you w-want with Cyan?”

Mercury took his other hand out from his pocket to place them both on his hips. “Really, it’s nothing, I had a few questions about her semblance-”

“-I-I- I don’t want... “ Fern trailed off, his gaze leaving Mercury’s to look at a wall. “I don’t want… anything bad to ever happen again…” Fern said. “I think- something... bad was supposed to happen today.” Fern looked back at Mercury with confident eyes. “I-I think she stopped it- Yang.”

And Mercury dropped his hands from his hips and somehow stood up straighter like he was being called on in class. He blushed at his reaction…

“What?” Mercury asked.

Fern shyly smiled as he took his gaze away again. “I think… she… was able to stop something really bad from happening… and that’s why…” Fern looked back up at Mercury. “I feel like... you might not be that bad… if you saved her...” 

Mercury couldn’t help but blush deeply. He wasn’t sure at all what he meant by that. But he was sure his instinct was right: this kid was good to Yang, and that in Mercury’s book makes Fern the only person on this truck-train worthy of his respect. He let out a soft smile at the kid without knowing it. But it was not returned.

Fern brought his eyes up to Mercury and glared at him. 

“I-I want to believe- that some people… are good enough to want to stop the bad in every form… no matter who’s side they’re on… but if I’m wrong about you…” Fern couldn’t hold his gaze and turned towards the end of the hallway. “I’ll be the f-first person to kick you off…”

And for some reason, that made Mercury’s heart sink a bit as the boy kept walking down the hall. He couldn’t help but watch as Fern went towards a door at the end, knocked on it, and waited for it to open before he took a small delicate hand that lifted him into the room. The latch shut down and an echo was all Mercury was left with. 

_ That was weird... _

Maybe he was talking about Opal? Did Yang stop Opal from doing something bad? He was sure  _ he  _ was the one that literally kicked Opal’s murderous intention out of her? Mercury tried to ignore it. Above all, Fern  _ was  _ someone who had earned Mercury’s respect- only because he could clearly see who Yang was as a person instead of the disgraced huntress in training from the CCT. It warmed Mercury’s heart, but also made him pissed at himself. He should have been a little more careful with how he presented himself with Fern, cause now the guy thinks Mercury is an asshole assassin douchebag, beating up and claiming girls cause he can. Doesn’t help that Mercury kicked his ass at the lake, as well as tried to blast him and that girl he was clutching onto this morning… 

Mercury was kicked out of his thoughts as Nyx hurried up from behind him on the spiral staircase.

“-What are you doing? We’re about to brake any-”

And slam- Mercury and Nyx were flying through the hallway at breaking speed- flying past the doors and latches like torpedoes. They had hit the brakes. Mercury was so shocked he just barely got his feet before him to land on the wall at the far end- but when he tried to snag Nyx- it was already too late.

She was held with a roll in her eyes by a pink rope of aura- a new face flew past her and landed on the wall with Mercury- just in time for Nyx’s ropes to deflate as she fell into the stranger’s open arms on the wall.

They held on like that until the truck was in a full stop, and together they slid off the wall and onto the floor.

Nyx untangled herself from someone who was almost twice her height. Mercury looked up to the tallest person on the ship. This tan dude had light pink hair that looked pretty shaggy over his eyes. 

“Oh jee, thanks…” Mercury could tell Nyx was trying to come off as sarcastic, but there was something softer in her voice. “...Are you alright, Floyd?”

The man just shook his head as he leaned down to fit in the hallway. He looked over at Mercury and he finally got a better picture of him.

It was definitely the guy with the big bow, no doubts about it. But what Mercury never noticed in their fight before was his face; a scar had slashed his appearance greatly. From his right eye to his left shoulder: a rip through his ear, split his right eyebrow and eyelid, ran over his nose and across his left check, and with the open-rope he wore, Mercury could see a deep slash on his left shoulder that looked like it took years to scar up probably. Looked like it was done in one single cut. Mercury looked back up at the guy, who just stared at him quietly. 

“Floyd, you remember Mercury…?” Nyx almost stood back, keeping closer to Floyd than maybe she even realized. Floyd only nodded as he watched Mercury. He looked back at Nyx and asked. “Stopped for a while?”

“Yeah, long while.” Nyx nodded.

Floyd nodded and walked away towards the spiral staircase. Once he was gone, Mercury looked over at Nyx, who was totally watching him to make sure Mercury didn’t fly off again.

“So, that was Floyd?” Mercury asked. Nyx’s mouth tightened before giving him a goofy and wide-eyed nod. 

Mercury looked out at where the guy disappeared. 

_ “-by the look in your eyes.” _

And Mercury kind of got that now. As he looked back at his awkward and silent staring contest with Floyd, Floyd’s eyes gave off that same kind of impression. 

  
  
  


Miles away, a little closer to where the truck took off on their journey today, is a shack in the middle of nowhere. Historically known for only having two residents, the one that built the shack, and their son. But that was years ago. Today, a lone man, a giant almost, stands alone in the shack. He has already searched through the cupboards, papers, and the brunt ruins of the barn outside. The only thing not covered in dust was the safe pulled out from under the floorboards in the kitchen. Recent break-in? Very recent… Considering the timing, it looks very possible…

The man walks out of the shack to look at the empty fields that stretch on for miles. He only takes a moment to appreciate the view before reaching into his pocket to take out his scroll. He makes a call.

“You were right, he was here.”

The man stands and waits for the other person on the call to stop their rants. She was right that he should have gone here sooner, but none of them would have guessed he would come back  _ here _ . It would be the first place they would look for him.

“You’re right,” The man looked out, trying to see which direction a person on the run would go. “-He’s getting desperate.” 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercury is not making a good first impression, and he sucks at trying.

Floyd had run into the cockpit from the other side of the truck at full speed. Luckily in these days, the truck was half the size. 

Ray, Noah and Cray lifted their heads up from a rug on the floor of the kitchen, just in the corner of a room that was basically the cockpit and all it’s machines to control the rest of the truck. 

“She’s up.”

Without a second thought, Noah got up to his feet and ran past Floyd. Ray hurriedly followed as Cray cheered.

“Wow! Two whole weeks! Hey I told you so! I told you she would-”

“Do you  _ ever _ just shut-up?” Ray hissed.

“How is it? Is she responsive?” Noah ignored the two behind him and asked Floyd.

“Yeah. Very much so.”

The truck at this point was just walkways with a roof high over to protect the inner-mechanics that they walked over from the outside elements. Cray followed them through the confusing highway of walkways until they got to a top latch that lead to a second floor between the pipes, they crawled up and went down that hallway to open up the vault at the end.

Noah was half-way through opening the door when Floyd mumbled:

“I wouldn’t do-”

Crash! A potted plant was thrown right into Noah’s face.

“Ack-”

“Noah!” Ray cried, reaching down to help him. 

Cray and Floyd looked out into Noah’s room, which was basically a garden, which had an angry teenage girl with short blue hair sitting up in the bed, angrily looking for something else to throw.

“Easy there-” Cray tried, but a book just bounced off his head and went for Floyd, who casually dodged it.

“How  _ dare _ you!” Ray shouted. But the girl only growled at him. 

“Who are you guys? Get away from me!” She tried to move herself out of the bed, but winced in pain.

“Now hold on-” Noah got up from the floor holding his bleeding nose. “You shouldn’t move just quite yet, your wounds-”

“Where’s Fern! What did you do to Fern!” She screamed. Noah instantly backed up, she was vicious. 

“You  _ totally  _ have the wrong idea! We  _ saved _ you-” Ray tried to scream over her.

“Where is he?” She glared at him. The sound from her was almost grim-like. It gave Ray chills. She once again tried to get up, but Noah got up to hold her down.

“-I’m sorry- your wounds-” She started kicking and scratching him and screaming more. 

“Hey- he’s just trying to help-” Ray’s shout was cut off with Cray’s hand grabbing his shoulder. He gave Ray a shh and a wink before holding him back to approach them both. He calming sat down next to the both of them wresting on the bed.

“Hey, you remember me?” Cray tried, she ignored him and tied to bite at Noah’s neck. Cray got a hold of her jaw right as she was about to chomp down and turned her head to look at him.

“Hey-” He got her to look him in the eyes. “What’s your name?”

The second she recognized the question, she wore confusion on her face as she tried to remember. It calmed her down.

“Opal…” 

“Opal! Nice, my name’s Cray, you ‘member me?”

Opal looked at him for a bit, and then took a quick bite at his fingers.

“Ouch!” He stood up from the bed and looked at her. He was about to get a little more rough, but he saw her eyes; they did not have the hatred and rage in her eyes when she pinned him down on that day, this was different. She looked at him still seriously, but she wasn’t trying to hurt him.

“Where the fuck is Fern?” 

“Fern?” Ray asked.

“The boy you were with?” Noah unleashed her a bit, still keeping her arms pinned. “He is in the next room still sleeping, we found you guys just in time-”

Opal head-butted him right in his already bleeding nose, he couldn’t help but let her go, she slipped past both Cray and Ray, but Floyd got in front of her and was able to pin her on the wall. She moaned in pain as she collapsed on the floor.

“Oh- they might have re-opened-” Without thinking, Noah rushed up to her to check on her wrapped up legs, but she tried to smack him away, missing pretty greatly. Noah leaned back to just look at her.

“What-” She was painting, she really was in no state to move at all. “-What do you guys want with us?”

“How  _ dare  _ you!” Ray had lost it, stomping over to Opal on the ground to rant over her. “We  _ saved  _ you! If it wasn’t for Noah here, you would have died and that boy would have been gone in the next  _ hour _ !”

“Heh- sure- such bullshit.” Opal spat. “You think I would fall for that guppy garbage? That there are people who  _ actually _ go out of their way to help some defenseless kids, when they live like  _ this _ ? Is this some kind of human-trafficking ring or-”

To Cray’s surprise, Noah slammed his fist on the ground enough to dent the floor. And that shut Opal up right away. Cray looked around to see that Ray and Floyd were also just as shocked; he hadn’t seen Noah show any sort of violent emotion in the weeks he spent here, almost chuckling at the moment Noah  _ tried  _ to be intimidating but it terribly failed. But it didn’t look that way to Opal. Poor Opal put on a brave face dripped in sweat, getting ready for whatever would come at her. No matter what, she needed to keep Fern safe, no matter what. 

But instead, Noah grabbed his face hard, and started loudly sobbing. 

“Oh Noah…” Ray sighed, walking over behind him to pat his back. Opal was just stunned. Her mission and injuries were completely at the back of her mind as she watched this big scary man crumble before her. Cray almost felt awkward watching this grown-ass man cry like a baby while holding his nose and this confused scary-weird girl looking around just wondering how it got to here.

“I- I’m…” Noah tried to get his words out, and then he looked up at Opal’s eyes with tears falling off his chin. “I’m so sorry.” He reached out his palm, and because Opal also felt super awkward having this big stranger absolutely loose it in front of her, and with no way out and no idea on what to do next; stunned, she gave in. She carefully placed her hand into his, giving Cray, Ray and Floyd confusing looks. 

He clutched on her hand and brought his other one up to hold on as well, and he brought her tiny hand close to his huge chest. 

“I-I promise-” Noah let his tears fall down his cheek and Ray rubbed his back even harder. “-You won’t ever have to think that way  _ ever _ again.”

\----------------------------------

They had been stopped for almost an hour when Mercury decided to go outside of his room. He had been doing push-ups and then pull ups with some pipes on the ceiling to calm himself down. After that whole thing where it seems  _ everyone _ on this truck likes to get defense over Mercury asking the kids some questions, and he’s awkward and strangely less eventful meeting with the guy who said that Mercury “had the eyes of a killer”. Mercury decided that he will let them take their time to get used to him first. But Opal? Yeah no, she just wanted to stay pissed at him. They had a lot of time until they would even reach the borders into the deserts- a whole continent to track through first. But he guessed she held a grudge to the guys that could use her hostage like that- he used her like a shield! He almost laughed- a stubborn person like that was not just going to forgive him for pulling those stunts on her. He embarrassed her. And he almost thought it was cute how she was using _anything_ to get back at him. He brought his chest back up to his knees for one last pull-up, before dislodging his feet with a free hand from under the pipe, and jumping down to look for his shirt. He thought to himself that her stubbornness kept her humiliated, so she wasn’t going to show any kindness to Mercury, probably the whole way through.

He tucked the shirt over his head and caught his breath. If Opal decided to trap him as their prisoner on this truck, or kick him off- I mean, she had no leg to stand on! They took  _ his  _ money! He’s a broke man on the run! What does  _ she _ want from him? He can’t even _do_ anything but take it…

But Mercury was still determined not to let Opal get the best of him. If she wanted to be stubborn and get her whole bosse to hate him because she’s bored and sad enough to, then so be it. He wasn’t going to be the one to make her feel better about herself. He opened the latch and got down to the hallway, walking through to see the outside.

He had to get them to just be  _ used  _ to him. He had to start somewhere, just… be in the background? Until he was useful? He wanted to find Ghost, and ask her more about that stealth mission, she probably had loose lips about it…

Until he got down the spiral staircase, he was pretty confident about where to go, but now… Everything almost looked the same. He was sure it was the next left, down this way… But here…

_ I’m already fucking lost. _

There was a maze of walkways and different levels just hovering above the now still and silent machines that worked the truck, and just over his head the floors to the skinny and stretched out main hallways. He didn’t know which path took him to the entrance of the hallway he wanted. He at least knew he could go towards the front of the ship, but, that wasn’t the way outside... Mercury stopped walking. He really wasn’t sure on where to go from now, outside or to the cockpit. Maybe the cockpit was better, at least someone there could show him how to get outside- but he thought he wanted to go find Ghost? But all he wants to do is get outside to catch an actual breath of air- His head was starting to hurt…

He thought about asking Fern about it, just knocking on the ceiling he disappeared up to, but that just seemed like too much. He knew the kid didn’t really like him, and he didn’t want to bother him. Bother him? Why was Mercury so worried about all that…

Mercury let his hand go of the metal railing. He didn’t realize how tense his body was- he was gripping the railing for dear life almost. He slowly tried to release the clench of his jaw, a bite he hadn’t realized only tightened after his work-out. His mouth gaped open and his whole body relaxed. He took a breath in.

_ Anxiety? _

He opened his eyes as he was able to push down his feelings, and almost went white when he noticed how close Relsh had gotten to him without making a sound. 

He jumped back a bit, but cooled down when he was able to recognize a quick look of concern that she tried to hide when he noticed her. She was just down the walkway, a few meters from him, wearing a look that now had no emotion. 

“Hey?” He called out to her. Her mouth pulled a bit and she turned her back at him and started walking.

“Come with me.” She said. It felt more like she was storming off away from him. Mercury took a deep breath and started catching up with her.

“Why? What’s going on-” He was right behind her now, trying to catch the look on her face.

“It’s just easier if you ae all together.”

He followed her on the walkway for a while, they didn’t go above into the hallways until they were a few steps away from the tiny door that led to the engine. The door was already opening itself as Mauve and Ginger poked their heads through and looked up at Relsh.

“Hey, we’re coming now.” Ginger said.

“Good, now turn around, let’s do it outside.” Relsh nodded at them.

“What? But Cray and Nyx are still in the pit-” Mauve protested.

“I’ll get them- you follow them.” She pushed Mercury in front of her. “Besides, I bet Ghost is  _ still  _ out there.”

“Well, yeah, but why  _ outside _ ?” Ginger questioned.

Relsh was already making her way down the hall when she called out over her shoulder: “I want some fresh air.”

Mercury slipped into the doorway with Mauve’s help as the lanky guy kept chatting away: 

“Ah yes, the fresh air! The sun! The sky! The breath in the wind from barbers far and wide!” 

Ginger and Mercury ignored Mauve’s little song as well as each other as they went through the engine room. Ginger ignored Mercury's existence all together. 

The hallway on the other side was different than before. It was just as long, maybe twice wider, and lower. Much lower, there were stairs that folded out of the walls that they used to get down to the hallway, which he was _certain_ wasn't the case when they walked thought a straight-shot hallway into the engine room from the entrance before. He noticed that Mauve could walk without ducking his head now on the bottom. They walked past the opened closest filled with pipes and cloths, and now the closet stretch higher, with the pipes seeming to have grown or move around sense he last saw it. The other door with the plants and mattress was closed this time. and the door leading to the stairs to the entrance he took was no longer the same. The frame was the same, but there was no tiny closest sized staircase towards the exit, just a wall filled with pipes behind a frame. He followed Mauve and Ginger as they kept walking towards the other end of the hall, where they went down a long and skinny set of staircases, that took them to a tiny hall with a large room at the end filled with sunlight. 

They had stepped out to the over hanger, with all the bikes out and parked on the grass in front of their opened garage. They had already set up their table with their stumps and chairs, and once his eyes adjusted, he saw that just outside was Ghost. Who was kicking a white-clothed pole training pole, her limbs wrapped up in white bandages as usual, doing some interesting agility kicks. The outside that they had stopped in was in the middle of an short opening between a hill behind them and it’s dried up water flow before the dense forest hit before them. 

How did the train- the truck get down here so smoothly? It's brakes were rough sure, but other than that, Mercury didn't feel so much as a bump that whole time. They _had_ to be on some tracks somewhere... 

Ginger and Mauve went over to two of the bikes parked out, and it was the first time he noticed that they both were wearing back-packs. They were looking at their bikes, checking some shit it seemed, and Mercury got bored and watched Ghost for awhile. 

She really did find a good fighting style for her semblance. She mainly used her weight and the gravity of the direction of her teleportation to give her blows some force behind them. Which he thought she needed, the most damage she could do was burse. But her form was not bad, it worked well with her teleportation style. And even without her semblance, she was fast. Being able to give three quick kicks in one motion. She smirked and spun back around, dong two more. 

**_What do you have to be proud of? Get that damn smirk off your face-_**

_ What the fuck? _

That came out of nowhere? Mercury felt the chills go off on the back of his head and neck, cold sweat seemed to spread like ice over his back. He looked out at Ghost again, and tried to repress the old memory. He was over  _ that _ shit. He watched her do a high kick, and had to look away. Mercury held on to his forehead and closed his eyes. Their techniques were nothing alike, but he guessed- just from watching her train maybe…

“Alright! I’m ready!” Cray called out excitedly. And Mauve ran over to Cray to dramatically swing around with him, Relsh walked out and turned to Ghost.

“We’re ready!” She called out. And Ghost immediately stopped and ran over with a skip.

Everyone started gathering in the garage. Nyx came in, and Mercury just had to notice the full-sleeve black metal chunky gauntlet covering her right shoulder down over her fingers. She walked up with it on like the heavy thing wasn't even on her. She was the only other person that came along with Relsh and Cray, and Mercury was a bit confused that they were missing a big chunk of their group. The kids weren’t here, neither was the shorty Ray, or that Pilot Noah. The mysterious tall dude with the scar was also nowhere to be found. And their so-called leader, Opal, was not among them. But Relsh started anyway:

“This is the plan, we’re going to do a four-on, three-on, switch, then keep it with two once we figure out the logistics.”

Mercury looked around, no one was questioning that Relsh was the one giving them orders, instead of Opal. In fact, Mercury was surprised she could even hold their attention. She didn’t seem like someone who was fond of conversation, none the less to lead it. She came off as more shy to him. 

“-we’ll keep switching out from there- but we’ll need all four of you to track and locate her before anything.” She turned to Mauve. “Go to the info in town, Ginger, you should follow as back-up. Meet up with Nyx and Cray, and trade info from there. I want the first out the be Mauve and Ginger, any questions?”

Ginger almost looked like he could clip his heels. “None whatsoever! Thank you!”

"No fair!” Cray cried, as Mauve stuck his tongue out at him. “I was in for the first two days last time-”

“Oh shut up, think about how I feel?” Nyx scuffed, gesturing to her bruises and wounds. 

“But who else can trap ém so well~” Mauve teased at them.

“Right?” Ghost mocked. 

Nyx chuckled at Cray’s dramatic misfortune as he cried on Ginger’s shoulder, who couldn’t have cared less as he patted his head shushing him. 

“Whatever.” Relsh deadpanned. “You guys figure out who’s doing what so we’re well informed before the trade-off.” She sighed and looked at Ghost. “As for us, we’ll be guarding till the trade, and then me and Opal-”

“No!” Ghost Cried. “I’m perfect for this stuff-”

“Yeah-” Ginger chuckled. “But you're not that great at subtlety.” He grinned almost cat-like at her. 

Ghost pouted at him before giving Relsh some puppy dog eyes. Relsh only shook her head.

“Not right now, maybe for the capture squad- let’s see how we feel after the first shift next week.”

_ Next week? _

“What? Next  _ week _ ?” Mercury couldn’t stop himself from asking. Which gave him some confused and judgmental looks from the squad.

“Yeah.” Relsh sighed. “Opal said to take this slow-”

“And where is she?” Mercury questioned. “I thought I paid you guys to a trip to Vacuo-”

“And that’s what you're getting- this is part of it.” Ginger glared down at him.

“We’re not going to make it  _ all _ the way to Vacuo on just your dime~” Cray sang with a wink.

“Yeah but-” Mercury started. “We don’t need to waste a whole week-”

“Dude?” Mauve asked with a toothy grin.

“-This is more like a whole month mission…” Nyx finished. Mercury gawked at them all as Cray and Mauve just chuckled at him while Relsh palmed her forehead. What was so weird? Don't they remember that Madame-whatever was looking for him? That _Hazel_ was after him? They needed to keep moving, and fast!

“Look-” Relsh started. “-We get the jobs we can on the path we get. If it works out? We take it.”

“Yeah, but sitting for a month? Let me remind you, I  _ am  _ on a list-”

Cray suddenly stood near Mercury to whisper:

“Not the  _ best  _ time to bring that up~” 

“Let me talk to that Opal girl.” Mercury sighed out, ignoring Cray. Maybe if he talked to their damn leader- and maybe that Ray guy? He wasn’t going to waste this much time on one stupid mission-

“She’s resting. We don’t bother her.” Ghost stated before Relsh could reach for her belt. 

“Resting?” Mercury scoffed. “While she makes you guys do all the work?” He looked around to see if he would get a reaction, but not even Cray looked amused. “-Whatever, I  _ need  _ to talk to her. I can’t just sit here doing _nothing_ wasting all this time-”

Mercury tried to catch himself, he was starting to get pissed off again, and that wasn’t a good look. What else could he do? He was stressed! Crazy world-ending lady is after him! And she can control Grim! And he’s only defense is a truck full of messed-up teens?  _ These _ messed up teens? Mercury looked out at them all, and Relsh’s glare at Mercury told him to stand down, he didn’t even notice how tense he had become. He looked around the group and decided... it was best not to let them know what kind of _hurry_ he was in...

“But didn’t Opal give him a job?” Cray raised an eyebrow at Relsh, who stood down a bit at that. That put Mercury back a bit; a job for him? Well, knowing him, he might be able to complete it much faster than the rest of them, whatever it was. Hopefully he’ll do it well and fast enough that it’ll make them want him on this stealth mission, and then he could speed it all up from there. Plus it was a good way for the group to just, you know, get used to him. He grinned at Relsh.

“Alright? What is it? I can do it.” He tried to positively assure her. He needed not to come off as such an asshole, he had to try to make it work with them, and being nice and friendly was a good start, if he actually started that way... He wished he noticed the fit of giggles both Cray and Mauve were trying so hard to swallow down for the past ten seconds.

“Clean-up.”

Mercury nodded before he could really react. “Okay- wait, what-?”

Cray and Mauve burst out into a fit of giggles that the rest of the team joined in on, even Nyx and Ginger, the only one not laughing at Mercury was Relsh. He could hardly react in all the noise before Relsh continued: 

“I want you out-” She turned to the others, waving her arm to get them to shoo. “Now- don’t lose the light.”

And with that, Nyx, Mauve, Cray and Ginger took off on the bikes, waving goodbye to Ghost and Relsh- with an awkward nod from Cray to Mercury as he sped off. 

Of course, Mercury had tried to argue with Relsh once everyone was gone, but with Ghost poking fun at him, and Relsh turning out to literally be the one person who probably won’t take shit from  _ anyone  _ on this truck- it didn’t end up working. And he thought she was the _shy_ one. Relsh told him to clean up the garage before she stormed off into the truck and it’s mazes. 

Mercury let out a hearty groan as he sat in the garage, which looked like it hadn’t been cleaned since the truck was built. The shelves were over flown with clutter that was caked with a layer of grease and dust. Oil covered new and old parts all over the work table, bench, and floor. Some spots look like they have been soaking for decades. The tools were also covered and sticky, and disorganized across the whole floor. Along with a bunch of nuts and bolts of all different sizes. Mercury looked under his butt and decided this was the worst spot to sit down.

“God damnit!” He yelled out, standing up to check out the oil spill on his ass. 

“HahaHA!” Ghost yelled out to him from her spot before the forest. “‘ _ You can do it’ _ buddy!”

With a grunt Mercury turned to her. “Oh fuck off! They made  _ you  _ stay behind too!”

Ghost grinned at him as she started doing standard kicks. “Yeah, but just  _ this  _ time, trust me, I’m kind of like the ace around here.” She jumped and did three kicks with one last spin kick before she got on her feet again to sheepishly smile at Mercury.

He dead panned her. “Ace? Where?”

For a second, she actually almost looked insulted, but she leaned into it and made it goofily dramatic before she rebuttal. “That’s mean! I am not as strong as you, but I'm still the fast-smacking ace this team  _ relies  _ on!”

Mercury took a few steps closer to her out of the garage and to her work-out pole, giving her and the pole both a look. “Not with  _ those _ moves, I wouldn’t rely on you.” He gave her a cheeky wink. She was actually starting to get annoyed,  _ she _ was in the  _ middle _ of _ training _ ! She  _ knew _ this guy was better than her, he didn’t need to rub it in!

“Alright though guy-” She took a step back and gestured widely to the pole. “Show me what _moves_ you mean.” 

Mercury only smiled at her brighter. He didn't take his eyes off her or his hands out of his pocket- but just in the next second later, Mercury’s left foot already came back to the ground, and the pole was broken in half and still sorrowing across the small opening.

“Ack!” Ghost jolted- surprised and dumbfounded as her only training tool landed broken in two quite a ways away. “You asshole!” Ghost squealed, getting more upset when she turned to Mercury who had an amused look on his face. “What was  _ that  _ for? You need to show off  _ that  _ much?”

Mercury put on a confused smile and shook his head. “I just did you a favor-” He might have gone overboard. What was he thinking? Maybe he was trying to impress her or something, maybe he just wanted to prove something to her. He chanced a look at her, and the grumpy pout on her face didn't feel hostile. At all. In fact, she was waiting for him to... continue? 

He walked on over to the closest tree and rested his sole on it. “Start kicking trees now," He looked back at her and felt rewarded that her attention was still on him. "-you should have been off that pole a year ago, really.” He waited until she joined her at the tree, she was still pouting, but listening. “You need to make your legs stronger, no wonder your kicks are so weak.” He chuckled as she pushed him off the tree to start trying it out herself. She gave it one good solid kick with good form, before she froze and let her body just fall completely. 

“That hurts!” She cried, rolling on the ground dramatically holding her shin. 

“Yeah? That’s the point?” Mercury looked down at her. Her whines were _very_ high pitched.

“But it  _ really  _ hurts!” She gave him some big old puppy dog eyes. “Try it! It hurts-”

To shut her up, and just to feel like himself for a bit, and because damn breaking that pole let him release a lot of tension- he decided to show her how powerful a strong kick of his really is. 

Ghost almost thought they were under attack for a split moment when the tree broke off into tiny splinters around them- the top of the tree slowly falling back to reveal the sun behind it. Mercury looked back at Ghost, kind of hoping he didn’t freak her out. She stared up at him blankly with wide eyes, until the tree finally fell from it's great height. The crash seemed to wake her up a bit, and her stare slowly turned into a large and crazy smile.

“That- That was AMAZING!” She got up to look at what was left of the tree and Mercury blushed. Sure, he kind of wanted to show off a bit, but getting some positive feedback right now? It was good for his soul. He watched her as she went on about the tree with stars in her eyes.

“-And boom! Like what? Your legs are so strong! But I don’t want _that_ much muscle on me, cause lets face it, I have no ass, big thighs would probably just point that out more-” 

“Just-” Mercury couldn’t help but smile to cover his annoyance. “-Start with kicking metal after a few months on wood, like the second you don’t feel anymore pain in your legs-”

“Haha- what?”

“It’ll work faster, and soon you’ll be able to kick down trees easy.”

Ghost clapped her hands together in excitement. “Really! Just like this? Oh my god, could you IMAGINE me teleporting and leaving a blow like  _ that _ ? I would be a one-woman unstoppable team!” She crackled out almost evilly. She seemed to be steaming with energy as she stood over the broken tree and ran to another one and started kicking, much lighter this time.

“-Yeah, I can imagine.” Mercury chuckled. Maybe hyper-activeness was alright in small doses? He was starting to like Ghost, only because it seemed like she really had no resentment towards Mercury, nothing she wanted to hide from him- unlike the rest of them. 

“But dude," Ghost started. "I’m definitely not going straight to metal the second I get used to this- my damn legs would fall off!” 

_...Huh. _

Mercury let out a giggle, and then slowly caught himself chuckling. Then almost laughing hysterically- having to lean over- grabbing his knees that he didn’t grow up with, and tried to catch his breath between the fits of giggles. 

_ They probably fucking will! _

And he threw back his head and started roaring with laughter. It wasn’t funny, it wasn’t funny at all. But it was still so damn hilarious. 

“I’m charmed and creeped-out all the same.” Ghost watched him with a raised brow, so confused as to where this random spurt of emotion came from. Was her comment that funny? This guy had a terrible taste in humor then. 

“By the way-” She continued once Mercury got his breath back. “Are you going to get me a new one or?” Mercury looked over at the pole that she was pointing to, gesturing to how two-pieced it currently was now. Mercury looked back up to her with a shrug.

“You won’t need it-”

“But it helps me train!”

“-I’ll help you train.” 

“...What?”

They watched each other for a bit. Ghost giving him a goofy-suspicious look. Mercury crossed his arms and waited. She started twirling her ankle as she watched the ground. Mercury understood, after all, he was a stranger. He didn’t even know why he offered to her… He looked at her, short, maybe a year younger than him? Maybe two? She looked like such a little girl right now, but maybe it was just a baby face? He snapped out of it when Ghost looked back up to him grinning.

“Okay, but 'cause you owe me, you better be nice about it!”

Mercury nodded at her with a grin that this time he didn’t use to hide annoyance. “Deal.” 

It only worked for about twenty minutes of Mercury telling Ghost how to position herself and get her footing right- when Relsh came back out and berated him for not even touching the garage yet. 

“If you’re staying here, you have to pitch in.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Mercury shouted over at Ghost, who was taking a break from training to watch him try to mop the oil out of the floor. He was able to sweep most of the shit on the floor out onto the grass, he would clean it later when he placed it all back in the garage.

“She’s not doing anything, she’s not asking  _ you  _ to do anything- those kids are probably just  _ playing _ -”

Ghost rolled her eyes as he listened to him complain, playing with some bolts on the ground. “They’re  _ kids,  _ they get to play.”

“-Yeah but like-” He got up to look at Ghost. “I’m only here cleaning cause I piss Opal off, and what’s she doing?  _ Sleeping? _ ”

“- _ Hey. _ ” Ghost looked up to give him a playful but warning stink eye, he rolled it off.

“I’m just saying, if  _ that  _ was the excuse for sitting me with the shitty job, that’s  _ fine _ \- but no one else is ‘pitching in’, so it just feels-”

“What?” Ghost stood up to be at a better level with him. “Listen~ I got left behind on a mission, but I’m still doing my part! Just cause I’m not needed today doesn’t mean I still can’t-”

“What _are_ you doing?” He scoffed. 

Ghost let out a cheeky grin flexing her arms up at him. “Training!” Mercury rolled his eyes before she continued: “I’m also on guard with you and Relsh, well, everyone is guardian if they’re with the truck. Fern and Cyan are probably training too, in the pillow room.”

Mercury rolled his eyes and went back to mopping. She wasn’t getting his overall point at all!

“What about those other guys? What are the pilot and the shorty doing?”

“Noah and Ray?” Ghost put her hands on her hips. “They got the most important jobs here! They  _ own  _ this big bad-boy! Ray makes this truck  _ move _ ! And almost every stop he’s got to fix  _ something-”  _ Ghost took a quick peak around the room, looking at the large cut Relsh made just above where the bikes were parked. “And Noah just does everything, he’s the chef, the doctor, the big uncle, the gardener, he’s usually too busy to go out unless we really force him…” 

Mercury started rubbing a spot of stubborn oil very toughly. It was starting to piss him off that they each had their own excuses to let their  _ paying  _ passenger clean up their messes- well, maybe a  _ little _ of this mess in here was his fault, but  _ still. _

Ghost waited for him to ask, and Mercury sighed and finally let it out:

“What about that Floyd dude…”

Ghost hummed. “Floyd does his own thing, no one tells _him_ what to do.” 

Mercury snapped his head back at her and she was giving him an honest small smile. “It’s the truth, don’t let it piss you off!” She said. “Used to piss me off too, but they just let him wonder, usually he comes back to us after a day or so, sometimes with some good game for us to cook up and eat.”

Mercury looked at her appalled. “What about the ‘everyone pitches in’ bullshit?”

Ghost shrugged. “He pitches in with missions, does what he’s told on them, and on his off time, he’ll just run around and fix the stuff he can in here, he’s not actually a bad mechanic…” Ghost looked up a bit, her mind trying to best imagen the image. “But yeah no, he just doesn’t work like that. He listens, but even Opal wouldn’t push for it- been this way since I got on at least.”

For some reason, hearing that there was at least one person on this truck who wouldn't cower to Opal’s will, made him feel more relaxed and calm down. He had a new question on his mind.

“When did _you_ get on this?” He pointed his thumb up at the truck.

Ghost perked up a bit and gave him a raised eyebrow. “Would you be surprised if I said that it almost went down the same way as this morning?” 

Mercury stopped what he was doing to give her his full attention, with a face full of confusion. Ghost chuckled at him.

“It happened quite a few months ago;  _ I  _ was the one they were tracking!” She gave him a proud grin as she pointed her thumb at her chest. 

“Oh?” Mercury hummed. He wouldn’t have ever guessed that. “So you're just the prisoner they let off the leash?” He raised an eyebrow at her. 

“Ha- of course not-” She saw his bait and refused to bite. “I was definitely spending a few nights in the closet, when they could keep me in there, heh- but I charmed them out of it! They were impressed by my moves, of course!” She did a quick jump for a well done high kick- and then she teleported to spin even higher as she crashed into the ground, posing up and bowing. “-They let me join when I convinced them I would bring in more than my bounty!”

Mercury did a mocking slow clap for her performance. “A bounty?” He smirked. “How much?”

“Haha-” she playfully rolled her eyes. “-It’s dropped now, and it’s not  _ nearly _ as much as yours~!” She teased as she whirled around.

Mercury dramatically brought his eyes to the ceiling. “Whatever, what were you running from?”

Ghost stopped twirling. She looked over at Mercury more seriously now. “What about you?” She asked, a sneaky grin growing on her face. “I never said I was running, people were just after me.”

Mercury’s eyelids dropped a bit, to give her a subtle hint to drop it. But she placed her hands behind her back and kept rocking around where she stood. She waited for a bit and shrugged.

“Whatever, I’m going back to training, call out to let me know if something’s off.” She gave him a two-fingered salute and walked away from the garage back to the tree she was practicing at. 

Mercury quietly watched her before slowly going back to mopping out the oil stains on the floor. He was right that Ghost would be the one to let him know things, she _did_ have loose lips. But he was wrong again, he  _ expected  _ again- Was she just opening up to get him to let out something? He was totally caught off guard by that last comment, he didn’t even realize how much he had dropped his guard to let himself get lose with her- only because he expected her to be a dumb attention-seeker he might be able to get information out of. 

The oil stain finally gave through, and once again Mercury was reminded to unleash his muscle tension as he cleaned up the breaking up black spots. 

Really? Maybe it was none of that. Maybe he expected her to be an idiot, and she just wanted to get to know him because she’s been in his situation- maybe she even wanted to prove him wrong, that she wasn’t just a hyper-active teenage girl. But most importantly, she trusted him enough to let him show her some of his moves, trusted him enough to let him train her a bit, and talk to him today so that he wasn’t lonely…

_ Stop being such an asshole. _

He remembered the little chat he had with Fern earlier, how he grew a bond with Yang, no matter what side she was on… He needed to be… He needed to take a step back more… Try not to decide what everything was yet... 

The sky was starting to grow orange, and Mercury had been in the garage all day. The floor was clean but for some stains, cracks and holes. He was making his way around the room, placing things back, and starting to dust the walls. He was nowhere near done, but the floor and the things on the floor were cleaned, and starting to get organized. He probably should have cleaned the roof and walls first before mopping cause now he’ll have to sweep the floor again… He never had to clean shit up, not since he lived with his dad- he was a bit out of practice. 

He got over to the large scar hanged over where the bikes were parked, it slashed a shelf in two, but the angel didn't disrupt the support, and the crack just stayed in the hanging shelf. 

Mercury stepped back to whistle at it. Someone, maybe Relsh? - Slashed their blade forcefully and deeply into the side of this wall.

“I know right?” Ghost had entered back in, sweating and painting. “Relsh did that when she tried to kill your girlfriend-”

“She’s not my-” Mercury blushed. Should he correct her? Why did it matter what _they_ thought of it? Maybe the feeling of guilt for not correcting the situation didn’t out weight the warm feeling in his chest of the idea of  _ dating  _ Yang… He felt confused, did he want to date her? He liked her-

_ I like her??? _

Mercury started blushing even more and shook his head to look at Ghost, who didn’t seem to notice much of Mercury at all, still looking at the wall.

“Was Relsh  _ really _ trying to kill her?” Mercury raised an eye. He remembered only Opal being that keen to the idea- and maybe that asshole Ginger maybe? And Relsh was one of the people that convinced Opal to get off of killing Yang, right? He could see maybe Relsh wanting to kill Yang in battle- she wasn’t nearly as good as a huntress as Yang was, but that was probably from frustration. 

“I wish she did- God it would have made everything a little easier-” Ghost patted his back and started walking off. “But we got you, so I guess it all worked out-”

“You _ wish _ she  _ did _ ?” Mercury couldn’t stop the question from angrily coming out. He had the idea she only said it to push some buttons, but when she turned to him with an innocent look of confusion, he got furious. 

“Of course?” She said. “She’s just a spoiled and privileged kingdom-kid, it probably would have been a little funny.” She giggled and turned to take her way out. 

Mercury wanted to explode. How could  _ they  _ want to _kill_ her? They couldn’t  _ even _ kill her- They weren't _killers-_ they couldn't even _touch_ her- because she’s  _ not _ privileged, she worked her  _ ass _ off to be _strong_ \- to _save_ the people  _ he _ was a part of endangering- these guys didn’t even  _ know _ what the  _ fuck  _ they were talking about-

He tried to do something, say something, anything- but all he could do was glare darkly at Ghost’s back as she left into the hallways of the truck. 

And suddenly, he felt nothing again. He had been in this loose tango of feeling all his true emotions and then repressing them back all day, and right now it was all the same. But a realization helped him calm down greatly:

_ That's how I used to see Yang _

And it was true, he’s first year at Beacon, till he saw her again at Haven- Heck, he didn’t get an actual good look at her until he became her prisoner. That was how he used to see Yang, and everybody at the kingdoms- I mean, there is a bit of a point to it though- but…

_ How could anyone use that as an excuse to kill her? _

He quietly went back to dusting. Trying to remember when he thought differently about spoiled kingdom-kids, did his mind ever really change?

Maybe in the end, he was just being a hypocrite. But one thing was for sure, he did not like Ghost whatsoever. 


	4. Chapter 4

“It smells good, yeah~?”

“ _Get_ out of his _face_ dude-” Ray pushed Cray’s face out of the way of a very quiet and still Fern. He sat on the rug in the kitchen crossed legged with a blanket wrapped around him with a soulless look in his eyes as he just stared at the bowl that had to be placed into his hands. He hadn’t talked or looked at any of them since he woke up last week, just staying near Opal. 

“Has he even spoken to you yet?” Noah whispered to Opal as he sat at the steering wheel. She would not let Fern out of her site and had to stay in the same room with him at all times. Over the last few days however, she’s given him some breathing room- Noah liked to think it was their way of ganging Opal’s trust. Yet, even while they were just across the room, she watched down carefully how close Ray and Cray would get to him. Her eyes not leaving Fern.

“No.” She tells Noah, wearing a scorn on her face. “But that’s besides the point-”

She leaned back a bit to glance at the small front window of the cockpit to a still landscape before turning back to keep watch on Fern.

“-We need to keep moving. The grim were heading somewhere-” 

Noah raised an eyebrow at her. “We already went over this- the grim went to the vital- to Vale. You don’t need to worry about that-” 

Opal didn’t mean to, but she ended up glaring at the three on the rug in the kitchen. “Still- Keeping still like this- he won’t get used to the motion if we just stay still-”

“Hey- Don’t- Doctor’s orders you know, let’s not push it…” Opal grumbled to herself and almost blushed as she dropped her death glaze at the kitchen area and gave Noah a genuine look. 

Noah smiled at her and gave her a goofy shrug before she went back to looking over at Fern. “I agree!” Noah stated, leaning back a bit to look in the same direction. “We will get moving soon- Cray just needs more… I mean, our target is heavily guarded…” They only took this job because Cray wanted to prove himself, push buttons, or _something_ , and now they were in such a strange mess, and because Cray convinced them to pay for the information, they needed _something_ to get them to the next job. He didn’t want to worry Opal about all that, especially with her… brother? -so obviously traumatized from something Opal refused to talk about, which Noah didn’t mind too much at all. They didn’t have to talk about anything, but they needed to drink and eat, breathe and live… 

“How guarded?” Opal asked.

“Ugh-” Noah got up from the chair and stretched out his back. “-Just a bit, don’t worry about it-” He started walking down the stairs. “They just got us even…” He winked at Opal who didn’t catch it as she kept watching the boys- Cray was now dancing, with Ray running around trying to get him to stop. 

Noah walked up and sat in front of Fern as the others ran around them. 

“Hey buddy.” 

Fern looked like he didn’t even notice there was something in front of him, as well as him holding a bowl in his hands that was almost spilling over. 

Noah saved the soup from falling and held the bowl, using the wooden spoon to steer it up a bit. 

“I need you to eat- take it slow, but you need to start.” Noah had gotten him to take a few sips before, and a few days ago Opal brought a bowl to him that came back almost empty- but Fern was hardly eating at all. Since he woke up, he’s eyes have stayed soulless, and it broke Noah’s heart. 

“You need to regain your strength,” He brought up the spoonful towards the boy a bit, trying to see if he can get Fern to just look at it. “-you’ll get better, I promise, nothing bad will happen when you eat it, I promise.”

Ray was finally successful at jumping on Cray’s back and getting him on the floor. They rolled around for a bit as they bickered- Ray trying to actually do some damage, and Cray just laughing it away.

“Alright then. Monkey boy, show me where this target is.”

Opal’s command echoed in the room and it made everyone, except Fern, look up at her in the cockpit.

“What?” Noah and Ray questioned at the same time.

“Uh, sure~ But it’s not monkey-boy you icey bitch~” Cray got up and Ray simply rolled off of him. Noah was able to snag his tail to stop him, and Cray let out a little yelp.

“Watch it-” Cray whined as he grabbed his tail back with a pouty hiss.

“-Opal,” Noah ignored Cray. “-What are you talking about...?”

And to Noah and Ray’s surprise, she let out the tiniest smirk before descending down the stairs.

“If the guards got us even, why not even those odds?” She stepped down to the main floor and looked at them all.

“Well _no_ ,” Ray sat up and pointed his finger up. “ _I_ won’t be fighting, and _Cray_ -” He gave Cray a kick to the back of his knee that Cray just mocked. “-turns out _he’s_ a terrible fighter as well-”

“And I’m a wimp!” Noah declared.

“And he’s a wimp.” Ray nodded. “We need to go slow here-”

“No you don’t.” Opal shook her head. “I’ve been listening to you guys; they’re a big name lost out here with none of their connections working and their resources depleting fast. You guys want to wait a few weeks until he can’t pay his guards anymore?” She placed a hand on her hip and unleashed one of her sickles. “Or do you want to turn in a heavy bounty today? Before someone else comes and picks him up?”

“Yeah~” Cray fist bumped. “That’s what I’m talking about!”

“You’re not off the hook! This whole thing wouldn’t have to be this _desperate_ if you just didn’t jump the gun-”

“No-” Noah turned his body to face her, putting the bowl down. “Your wounds-”

“They’ve healed.” She walked over to him, putting her sickle away. “Remember? My body’s got a fast-”

“ _Still_ -” Noah sighed. “They have guns! And they’re trained to fight! It’s too dangerous-”

“Make pinky go with her~” Cray sang.

“Of _course_ Floyd will come with her-” Noah looked around and remembered he hadn’t seen Floyd since that morning, but they would have to convince him- wait NO! “No you _can’t_ \- Ray! Ray, say something!” 

Noah turned to Ray, sitting on the carpet with his chin resting on his fists, elbows resting on his knees.

Ray looked lost in thought. “I think we need to get some _chairs_ or something…”

“Ray!” Noah pleaded.

Ray turned to look over at Noah. “I don’t _know_ . It’s about time we get out of here, and about time _they_ pitched in.”

“Heh.” Opal fully smirked and Cray got up to show Opal where on the map the target’s hideout was. Noah couldn’t believe it!

“ _Ray_ !” Noah sighed out. He couldn’t believe the first smile he saw from Opal was the smile of her proving him wrong! It almost made him happy to see it- but he needed to get over there to make sure everything was alright. After all, Opal just went through something _big,_ and doing something like this? Right now? Cray was showing her something and Noah got ready to stand up to interfere, when the smallest voice coughed up next to him.

“I-i-i-i-i-it’s… g-good...” The whole room stopped to watch as Fern’s eyes seemed to defog, just a bit, as he carefully brought up another spoonful to his lips. Noah felt a single tear wield up in his eye as he watched the boy. 

When the door to the room opened, it startled Fern enough to drop the spoonful onto the rug.

Floyd ducked in and looked at the soup staining the carpet. “We should get a table.”

  
  


\---------------------

  
  
  


“You should stop for today- the light might attract something.”

Mercury looked up from his soaking of rags to Relsh who was leaning in the doorway into the Garage from the inner truck. He had been out here since the sun came down, turning on the garage lights to try and at _least_ get this done as fast as possible, only to maybe prove to the others that he was useful…

Mercury put the bucket in, along with a rug he left outside as Relsh started turning a crank to make the garage shut. 

“We have food, follow me.” Relsh said over her shoulder at him as she was leaving with her hand hovering over the light switch.

Silently, he followed her through the truck. He tried to pass the time by counting his steps so he could figure out how long it took to get from one end to the other, but he got bored with it. When they got past the huge engine room, instead of staying on the main hallway for a while, they took the next stairway down under the hall to the walkways. Mercury followed her for a bit, then noticed this way was definitely longer than the first time Mauve took him in… Maybe because the truck was more compact while moving or something? Nothing looked as drastically changed as it did in the walkways before the engine room… 

He looked at Relsh, strangely wanting to know- and that’s when she turned around to look back at him.

“What?” 

“What?” He gave back to her. She looked at him questioningly and then continued walking on. He dropped it.

They opened the vault into the cockpit and Mercury smelled something- just something absolutely wonderful.

They walked into a very chatty room with the nicest smell filling the air. Mercury looked over at the kitchen and was surprised to find a new face.

Ghost was loudly chatting with another girl with long light blue hair and a bright pastel yellow battle-dress. She wasn’t just keeping up with Ghost in energy, she was even more hyper-active and talkative. Using her arms, stretching her face, laughing the loudest. She was animated as her and Ghost sat together, calling out Noah who _was_ an amazing cook cause he was making something absolutely _wonderful_ over there. Ray had his head down on the table with a mug of hot coffee in arm’s reach. And Fern was almost dancing around, poking fun of Ghost with them all as he cleaned the dishes and wiped down the counters standing next to Noah. 

Relsh closed the door completely and everyone looked up at them.

“Hey.” Relsh stated as she walked down. Mercury followed her and was forcefully aware of how quiet everything got. He quickly glanced at the table. Ghost had given him a short and friendly wave- which he ignored, and Ray kept his head on the table, as well as Noah who still stayed cooking. But did Mercury have to know exactly how uncomfortable he made Fern? With the boy completely shutting up and silently washing dishes. But it was much worse when he got up to the table and noticed a look of absolute disgust towards him. 

The girl with blue hair had completely shrunken up almost, glaring at Mercury in much of a way that a angry toddler would. As Mercury got closer towards the table to sit down, the girl got up and moved to situate herself between Noah and Fern leaning on the counter. 

Mercury rolled his eyes and shrugged it off, but before he sat down, Relsh took a sharp grab at his elbow and leaned into his ear.

“Don’t bother her.” Was the only warning he got. He watched the girl just staring at him as she tried to cling to Fern, who was probably more than an inch shorter than her.

Mercury tore his eyes off her to look around more, to see how Opal was glaring at him to let her know he’ll drop it; he could ask the kid later- but Opal was nowhere to be found. And it looked like that Floyd guy wasn’t around ether. 

“Mery-” Ghost started, after getting the ‘okay’ nod from Relsh.

“Mercury.” He snapped. He didn’t want Ghost to get friendly with him like that- he still couldn’t shake her giggles at wanting to kill Yang.

Ghost paid no attention, and kept a bright smile beaming at him. “ Okay, _sensei_. This is Cyan!” 

She gestured to the blue haired girl, who puffed out her cheeks and forcefully turned her head away from him. 

“Cool.” Mercury deadpanned. He also took his gaze off her to stare at a random wall until dinner was ready. Even though he was hardly there, no one went back to talking.

“Alright, food’s up!” Noah stepped away with his own bowl as people started to get up and gather. Mercury wanted to wait, watching Fern and Cyan go first as Noah starting chowing down at the table, then Ghost made two bowls and sat one in front of Ray. Mercury got up to stand behind Relsh, who also made two bowls, but only brought one to the table. Mercury got the last bowl, almost broken in two like the rest of them, and scraped off what he could of the chunky stew.

People were already eating in an awkward silence when Mercury sat back down. He decided to ignore it and start eating-

_Oh holy fuck wow._

He forgot to hold his spoon right as he quickly went for another bite.

“ _Holy shit.”_ He breathed out loud, not even noticing that he even said anything. 

Fern chuckled at him, and it made the rest of them join a bit.

“Noah’s an _amazing_ cook-” Ghost started

“Oh, stop it!” Noah blushed, playfully waving his arm to shush her.

“It’s true.” Relsh nodded.

“You guys-” Noah smugly blushed even deeper.

“Oh jesus- _learn_ to take a compliment.” Ray moaned out, rolling his head to look at Noah from on the table.

“Oh guys,” Noah excitedly waved his hand up and down like he was an old woman. “You’re just saying that,” Noah looked at Mercury and almost laughed at the pure look of delicious happiness the archetype bad-boy had melted into.

“Look at him!” Ghost gestured to Mercury with great pride at Noah. “He’s never tasted anything better in his life!”

Cyan smiled at Ghost, and was about to say something that looked to be snarky- but she shut herself up as her eyes quickly jolted at Mercury then looked away, sitting a little further back in her seat. She shared a look with Fern.

“I-it’s g-good, yeah?” Fern shyly looked at Mercury from across the table. 

Mercury took another bite and quickly nodded at Fern, pleasantly surprised that Fern was even looking at Mercury. And even more so when Fern gave him an even bigger smile with a short chuckle.

Conversation never got to how it was before, because it seemed Cyan refused to talk while Mercury was around, but he was doing it! He was sitting in the background as they talked, and they were getting used to him! 

Relsh got up to take her bowl back- and maybe cause he was in such a groovy mood of just sitting back and enjoying his meal while the others felt comfortable enough to talk, but he offered to take her bowl.

“Mine too!” Ghost lifted hers up. He snatched her bowl and then started going around picking up everybody’s. He wasn’t even thinking when he went to pick up Cyan’s bowl, only for her to snag it away from him.

“ _I_ can clean it _myself_!” She hissed. Taking her bowl over to the sink. He placed his pile next to it and waited for her to finish, trying again to ignore the silence and stares warning him all in his direction. 

“You feel like doing the rest of these?” He asked her pointing to the pile, maybe just to ease the tension. But the scorn Relsh sent his way as well as the flinch Cyan gave before she hurried her wash and walked away- made him think that this was a terrible idea. 

_Don’t talk to her at all- got it._

It stayed quite even after he was done with the dishes. He even cleaned the pot too. He looked at the now cold bowl that Relsh had laid out before, looking over at her pointing at it.

“Leave it.” She said. “It’s for Opal, later, when she wakes up.”

He nodded, looking at the one-portion bowl.

“What about Flow- the guy...” Mercury used his finger to gesture across his face and over one of his eyes. _That_ did not go well at all- with some dead panned eye rolls and some grunts- but he saw Ghost shaking in her seat, trying to contain her mouth from exploding into giggles.

“Don’t worry about _him_ .” Ray yawned out with a wave in his wrist, head back on the table the second he swallowed his dinner. “He’ll be _fine._ ” He yawned out.

“You should get some rest.” Noah smiled at Ray.

“All of us should.” Relsh stated. Turning to Ghost, who sighed and rolled her head.

“Okay, okay, good night yall.” Ghost followed Relsh out, and everyone else started standing up from the table. Cyan quickly whispered something over to Fern, before waving to Noah and catching up with Relsh and Ghost out of the room. 

“I’m not sleepy yet…” Ray yawned out.

Noah sighed. “Sure you aren't, buddy.”

Mercury turned to look at Fern, who was already watching him. Before Mercury could already ask, Fern nodded with a tight mouth, and they both left the room. 

“I miss Ginger…” Mercury heard someone yawn before they got into the hallway. They silently went through the walkways around the corners and up the spiral staircase.

Mercury and Fern had this moment before they parted ways of just questioningly watching each other.

“Uh, see ya.” Mercury lifted his right palm and gave Fern a little nod.

“Y-ya… G-g-good night…” And they parted ways.

Mercury crawled up to his little space in his dark room, with only the starlight above shining through the window being his only light.

_“I guess you can say that it’s easy to fall down darker roads with no stars to guide you.”_

He laid down looking up at the window above him, watching the stars as he heard Yang’s voice in his head, he let himself blush as he relaxed into the feeling. A little too tired to deny his true wishes...

  
  


The next day, Mercury hadn’t even noticed that he had fallen asleep, and had a dreamless and deep rest throughout many hours. He woke up realizing he didn’t take anything off, with drool on his shirt, and the sun directly in his face from the low edge of the window frame making him sweat. He suddenly sat up and realized how late it was.

He wandered around for a long while on the walkways, knowing which direction to go, but kept having to walk back cause he seemed to hit _every_ dead end there was. He randomly found himself on the right path- and walked into the cockpit to the smell of coffee.

“Mornin’.” 

Sitting at the table alone was Ghost, waving up at him. Noah was sitting in front of a potted plant in the other corner. No one else was around.

“Sleep well?” She blinked at him, sipping her coffee. He was still… so put off by her. But he didn’t really have a choice, he needed coffee if he was going to finish the cleanup today.

Still, he ignored her, got a cup of coffee and sat down, noticing that Opal's bowl of stew from last night stayed in the same spot, and now had a plate covering it. Ghost chirped a yawn and didn’t pay any mind to Mercury’s silence.

“You slept in.” She grinned over at him. “Everyone’s already doing shit, why’re you so late?” 

He groaned, she was being a little too loud. “What _kind_ of shit?”

“Well-” She drawled out, “Ray’s doing something in the engine room, and Opal’s making Relsh train Cyan and Fern-”

“And Opal can’t _because_?”

“She’s resting.”

Mercury gave her a look that she waved off. 

“Trust me, Relsh can be a good teacher, when she’s in the mood.” She stuck out her tongue a bit at him, and he just rolled his eyes.

“Shouldn’t you get out there too, Ghost?” Noah called out to her from across the room.

“SHH!” Ghost cheekily whispered at him. Noah gave her a smug and pouty look.

“Oh- _Fine_.” Ghost got up from the table and downed her coffee before turning to Mercury. “Meet you out there, ya? You gotta train me again~”

“Oh- what?” He just remembered **.** That was just... great. He didn’t really want to talk to her too much at all, he was still a little bit… He wanted to keep his distance, she was an okay person and all, but the way she…

“What? Did you already forget?” Ghost playfully pouted at him as she walked up the stairs to the exit, pointing at him. “You can’t! You owe me!”

He just shrugged in her general direction, and she left the room. He sat there to finish his coffee silently as Noah worked on replanting something.

Why did he offer to help train her? He really shouldn’t have said anything, nothing ever _made_ him want to give people pointer’s before- he had no _idea_ where it came from… specially ‘cause he just _had_ to offer to someone like _her_.

She straight-up _was_ trying to kill Yang, and she even laughed at the idea of it- he could tell, she wasn’t a killer. Unless, she was a _super_ crazy one…

_Don’t expect things_

He had to leave an open mind to _every_ possibility. Yet, what really ate at him was the feeling that came back to him again and again- the feeling of dread he held as he ran back from his old shack to Yang to just- just not make it in time.

He had convinced himself they wouldn’t hurt her much while he was gone, that she could take it for a few hours till he got back- and then after fighting with Opal, and seeing their team fall apart, and them arguing on whether or not to even kill Yang in the first place- Mercury thought he was reassured, even _with_ the close call on Yang, but then… 

_She turned out to be like you_

But Mercury didn’t want to believe it- he decided he would change. He wasn’t like that anymore. He has already changed! He looked into the black coffee in his hands. Has he though? He looked back at the Vital festal; he could see Ghost in his shoe's video tapping the Grim attack on Beacon, laughing away. He leaned further back into his chair and sighed.

_Who am I really to judge?_

He bet a whole ton of them were _still_ angry that he threatened to kill _quite_ a few of them just yesterday- the same way he was about them seriously going after Yang… Okay, maybe Ghost _is_ a more hyper-active version of his old self, but he _saw_ Relsh’s sweet and shy pled to Opal clear in his mind:

 _“I hate it when you’re like that.”_

And Opal _did_ look like she changed her mind… But that didn’t mean that she would just forgive Mercury.

He suddenly remembered holding her as a shield, and taunting her how she wasn’t “ _bad”_ enough to take Yang’s arm. Why the _hell_ did he say something like that? Did he just give her a new idea? Or something to prove to him? He clutched onto his knee as he drank the rest of his coffee. He got up, cleaned his mug, and started making his way to the stairs when Noah got up.

“You need me to show you the way?” He was already walking towards Mercury with a shy but opened look. When he got up to Mercury, who was still confused by the question, Noah chuckled a bit- and the relaxed look he gave Mercury instantly made Mercury realize he was probably wrong about this guy absolutely hating him too.

“It can be pretty confusing the first month, so follow me, I need to stretch my legs.”

And Noah stepped up the stairs looking back at Mercury to follow suit. Mercury went after him as he reached the door.

“Uh, yeah, thanks.”

Noah waved him off as he kept walking. “Of course, don’t worry about it.”

Mercury had to take notice that the longer way Noah took him on was the same way Relsh took him before. However he was glad he had someone to follow, he bet he spent more than 30 minutes looking for the cockpit for coffee before...

“Yeah, it’s pretty big in here.” Mercury called out to him. “I heard you and… Ry own this truck?”

“It’s Ray, but that was close.” Noah turned to look back at Mercury with a smirk- it seemed Mercury asked him a fun question. “And that’s kind of close, but this whole thing? It’s all baby-Ray’s.”

Mercury let out a little snort, feeling guilty about laughing at someone he doesn’t know and _also_ threatened to kill yesterday, but Noah just nodded with a goofy smug look.

“Ray’s been building on this machine for _years,_ you should have seen how it was a couple of years ago, you wouldn’t even _recognize_ it.”

Mercury looked around the truck, how much more could that guy try to ad on?

“What made him want to make this thing so big?”

“Haha, well-” Noah disappeared onto a stair set that hung halfway down from the ceiling, Mercury followed. “-We just had a lot more people on then usual, and he built this thing so that he could just- make those changes at _any_ time. Like that engine? That’s from a _boat_ . And it’s _old_ _._ But he found a way to make it work!” Noah started pointing at things in the truck for Mercury, telling him where Ray got it from, and how he got it to attach perfectly with everything else in the truck. Praising their mechanic for keeping everything compact but completely functional. 

“And oh boy, the way this thing _rides_ now-" Noah went on. “I’m telling you, it’s like you’re on top of the world, I can’t get over the feeling.”

“You like driving this thing?” Mercury smiled at Noah’s back. 

“Oh yes sir I do!” 

“Let me take it for a spin sometime.” Mercury joked.

“Haha, no.” Noah sounded very serious, which made Mercury want to kick himself, he was just getting somewhere with the guy! But then Noah continued:

“Sorry, I’m _very_ over-protective!” He sang back at Mercury. 

Mercury let out a chuckle. “Okay, okay, noted!”

They had entered the engine room, and Mercury followed Noah’s gaze towards the ceiling, where he almost laughed out loud when he saw that Ray was hanging almost upside-down on some shaky looking cloth rope, dangling in the air as he tried to fix something while keeping half the parts on his shifting lap.

“Hey, we were just talking about you!” Noah called out to him. Mercury was _really_ trying to get it together now- cause he just noticed that Ray was near a walkway edge, and if he was as tall as Floyd or Noah, he probably wouldn’t need to awkwardly strap himself up at all.

“Flattery distracts me, get out.” Ray nonchalantly called out at Noah, the goggles over his eyes making them look way more buggier than usual. Mercury did not want to lose his cool right now, he had to look away.

“Phss, fine!” Noah stuck up his nose at Ray all in good fun, and continued through the engine until Ray called back over to them.

“Get Relsh in here when you can- we need to go over some shit.”

“Yes sir.” Noah sang, and they both left the engine room.

The walked to the exit silently, with Noah making some friendly comments here and there that Mercury tried to react positively to. They got outside and Mercury was confused to see a tall man covered in mud.

Outside, Mercury saw that near the trees was Ghost kicking, and near her was Relsh and Fern sparing. Cyan was next to Ghost, looking like she was just there to gossip as Ghost practiced. Walking away from them and towards the open garage was Floyd, who was covered head to toe in mud and dirt, holding a tall plant and it’s few leaves with it’s roots still intact with his wooden bow attached to his back.

“Oh, hey Floyd! Is that a new one?”

Noah walked out towards Floyd looking at the plant, and almost jumped out in excitement.

“Oh! OH! This is _curry_ Floyd! You _angel!_ How did you find this?” Noah carefully took the plant from Floyd who only nodded at him. 

“Dry and well-watered soil, I think.” Floyd said to him. Noah just chuckled and shook his head as he looked at the plant.

“Go around and get cleaned up, meet me in the cockpit?” Noah laughed as Floyd looked down to notice how filthy he was. The tall muddy man just nodded and waddled off around the outside of the garage. Noah kept looking at the plant amusingly, giving Mercury a great big smile as he gestured to the plant.

Mercury nodded to him back a little confused, but felt pretty lucky that Noah was really, just _really_ letting himself loose with Mercury. After their first encounter yesterday, Mercury was so pissed at the guy, but it seemed maybe he wasn’t trying to threaten or put Mercury on edge at all, maybe he was just-

_Over protective?_

Noah gave Mercury a nod back and turned back to go inside. “Oh yeah!” He lifted his head back towards Fern and Relsh. “Mama wants to see you Rel-”

Relsh looked over to nod at him- Fern used this as a chance to get her in the cheek, but she just pulled his force towards him and gently kicked him off his feet. He landed on his back with an ‘oof’, and took her sheepish hand to get back on his feet.

“Alright, practice with Cyan-” Relsh walked on over next to Noah, and they both disappeared into the truck.

Fern looked over at Cyan with a shrug, but she only turned from him with a ‘hump’.

“No! I’m going to the pillow room to practice aura!” Cyan huffed out. Ghost stopped punching the tree and took a deep breath to quell her painting.

“Ugh, maybe I should too…” Ghost stretched a bit, practicing her aura armor that was a little shaky. 

“H-hey?” Fern looked at her and Cyan, gesturing to himself.

“Hmm..." Ghost started. "Mery, show Fern the footing thing you showed me yesterday.” Ghost winked over at Mercury, who tried not to darkly dead-pan her as much, now that he decided to try to work it out with her a bit.

Cyan's mood instantly dropped. “Did he kick you?!?!”

Ghost made an extremely goofy face as she gestured at herself. “Me? Kick _Me?_ I’m insulted- of course not!” She dramatically spun around, but it didn’t calm Cyan’s death glare towards Mercury. Ghost went on: “He’s a good fighter- showed me some moves yesterday, right?”

Mercury could tell that both Fern and Cyan were uncomfortable with this, especially Cyan. He sighed and gave Ghost a dead pan.

“I never agreed to help anyone but you.” He stated.

“Yeah, but I’m doing aura right now, and you still owe _me!_ Sooo just this once?” She gave him a big smile and kept pushing. “Right Fern? You cool with that?”

Mercury looked over to Fern and expected him to be very much not cool with that. And he almost guessed right, Fern looked a little nervous, but he was nodding with a pulled mouth until he saw the look Cyan gave him, and then he got a little more nervous again. Cyan was staring daggers at Fern, almost commanding him to come with her instead of staying out. Fern looked from Cyan to Mercury, getting sweatier and sweatier. 

“I-i-i-i would b-be, c-c-c-cool with it.”

“Ah!?!?” Cyan cried out loud looking at Fern, then she angrily looked over at Mercury and crossed her arms. “Oh fine- But _I’m_ watching!” She declared. 

“Uh…” Mercury looked out at them and pointed his thumb over at the garage, he still had to clean it today. Ghost just scoffed and waved him away.

“Just a few minutes- come on!” Her and Cyan backed up quite a ways to let them start. Mercury looked over at Fern, who shakily got into a fighting stance.

“We’re sparing?” Mercury asked, also getting into a fighting stance. Fern just nodded at him. “Okay-” Mercury gave him a nod with a tiny smirk, remembering the last time they both went one on one. “Go easy on me, okay?”

That seemed to have relaxed Fern, as his mouth lost it’s tightness. “Y-you too.”

They both went in slow, especially Mercury. They casually did cheap blows with little force to block and they rinsed and repeated.

“ _Oh_ come on!” Ghost chuckled out to Mercury. “Show him what you got!”

“No!” Cyan pouted at Ghost. “Fern! Kick his ass!”

Fern almost looked like he had a roll to his eyes. “I-i’m not much of a fighter Cyan…” Fern went for a soft kick to the side of Mercury’s shin- and suddenly Mercury realized that he relaxed a little too much.

He used some more force to throw Fern around him before his kick landed, but it was careful enough that Fern got back onto his feet with a look of surprise. 

“ _There_ we go! See that?” Ghost tried to get Cyan to stop pouting, but it really just made it worse. 

Mercury was starting to get frustrated- he didn’t mean to just suddenly kick it up like that- but… He was sure he shouldn’t let anyone know about his legs yet, not until he was certain how everyone was about him.

Fern brought the energy up a bit too, but like he said himself, he wasn’t much of a fighter. Not that he didn’t have the moves, the boy could defend himself in a fight no problem. But Mercury could see it in his eyes, Fern's mind was just not there- his heart was not in the fight. He would rather walk back over to Mercury when they bounced off each other rather than to run on over and catch him off balance. Mercury first thought it was just a lack of knowledge in strategy, maybe Fern was too young to take advantage of those little movements and didn’t have enough experience to notice them. But as Mercury gave Fern a kick that he dodged and let it roll off, instead of holding onto Mercury's foot to grab him for a punch like that night at the lake- He saw that it really was just Fern’s heart not being there. He didn’t have the look of wanting to understand his opponent, the frustration when your opponent gets the upper hand, or the smug joy when one of his hits worked out for him.

“I think you’re going _too_ easy on me!” Mercury sang out to him. Fern kind of shrugged a little embarrassed because he _was_ actually trying. Mercury shook his head. “I get it- it’s different when it’s just for practice versus the real thing-” 

A roar so loud it sounded as if it had ripped through the air itself had shattered their comfort. The sun was quickly blocked out and a large black mass was sweeping the opening between the forest and truck- Ghost instantly grabbed onto Cyan and teleported right as the mass was about to hit them- then it went for Mercury and Fern.

Mercury was just barely able to get his body in front of Fern as the mass hit him on the back and Mercury went flying- crashing into the side of the truck.

Mercury tried to get up- he heard Ghost close near him and looked up.

“Run!” She screamed towards Cyan as Ghost teleported right where she stood.

He looked up as Cyan ran past him into the garage. 

The wind blew strong as it got tangled in the wings of a giant nevermore towering before them. It’s huge claw stepped down to make the earth rumble, and picked up in it’s talons was Fern, his aura barely keeping protection around him, looking out completely speechless.

Mercury tried to get on his feet- but the big bird had sent him another wave of strong wind that got him back against the truck- the nevermore was taking off-

With wet hair and shirt, and no shoes on- Floyd leaped over the truck from behind, pulling on his bow mid-air at the beast-

“Hold!” 

The aura rope tangled itself onto the claw of the bird that wasn’t holding Fern, with the rope still attached to Floyd’s bow. Floyd landed and twisted his bow horizontally- then with a big motion, he pulled the rope down, and the nevermore stepped back down with a crash. Floyd laid his back on the ground and started sliding, just barely able to hold the nevermore.

The nevermore screamed again- trying to go for Floyd with it’s other talon, but not wanting to drop Fern. Floyd let out a painful grunt as he tried to hold on, silently letting out another form of pink aura, but this felt different than his rope bows- it came out to be a spear of its own form, looking much more solid as the neon haze. Floyd slammed the long spear into the ground to hold down. The nevermore stepped on it’s other claw with Fern to wrestle with Floyd. Fern yelled in pain. And Mercury was almost shocked how Fern’s aura grew a bunch, and how he suddenly had the power to hold the grim's grip off of his ribs and stomach. Fern clenched as he looked determined to get out.

Mercury’s instincts kicked in- more than he even realized it- running up to a large beast to try and get the boy away from it’s clutches. 

He almost got knocked out when he ran into an arm that appeared in white light in front of him. 

Opal held her arm on his stomach, holding him back looking at the nevermore. He turned to snap at her- but then saw her give him a look that for the first time, wasn’t a glare. He let her push him back- surprised her arm didn’t break off when he ran at full speed right into it. 

Next to Opal was Relsh and Ghost, who all probably just appeared there in Ghost’s teleportation. Opal turned back to the nevermore, her eyes not leaving Fern struggling. 

“Ghost, go to Noah, get him ready, but don’t let him out here- he’ll just attract more grim.”

Ghost nodded and disappeared on the spot. Mercury got into fighting a stance. 

“Alright what’s the plan-”

Opal’s arm moved to grab his shoulder roughly, he snapped it off him and looked at her. She still wasn’t glaring at him, and still had her clam focus on the grim.

“Clam, we need to stay calm.” She nodded to Floyd. “Keep holding it.”

Floyd made no reaction to what she said, but didn’t stop what he was doing at all. Opal finally took her eyes off the beast to glance at Relsh.

“Go.”

Relsh had her sword strapped on her hip, she unleashed it and took a step forward, glaring at the beast. 

Mercury again tried to step forward to get ready to attack, but again Opal held him back.

“Just her.”

_What the fuck?_

“Just her? Are you insane?” 

Opal finally turned to him to give him a clear and emotionless look. “Stay calm.” She demanded, reminding him much of another brash and stubborn goldy-locks girl. He instantly was cut off by the recognition, and yet again stood down. Opal looked back at Relsh. 

Relsh got in position, holding her sword close to her face as she stared at the beast. Floyd was grunting harder now, and Mercury was starting to freak out as Relsh just stayed still looking at the nevermore.

She stared out and looked over at Fern. They shared a second of eye contact before Relsh nodded. 

Mercury heard a quiet: “I hear you Fern, Don’t worry.” from Relsh before she zipped in front of the grim. 

She almost split the grass in her speed as she got right under the beast, in the first swing, both legs fell off, as well as a few trees near by splitting in half from the blow. The nevermore cried in pain and tried to soared up a bit- but Relsh was already there.

Mercury was blown back at the clean and powerful hits Relsh dealt out that Mercury could hardly keep up with. What he saw from Relsh before was nothing like this- He watched her jump from tree top to tree top, leaving multiple cuts with it’s beak falling off. It was like she was a tornado blade, like her fast swings were never meant to go from left to right- they were meant to keep spinning and spinning at every angle in the air with a monster as big as this nevermore. 

It was over in less than a second- the nevermore’s wings were cut off- and down the middle the bird split. Relsh landed on the ground with her sword on her shoulder, looking up at the dissolving grim. 

Mercury had never seen anything like it. She was a full on _master-_ it felt almost like she was on _Qrow_ ’s level of swordsmanship- taking on a whole beast like that, with not even a sweat on her? A full sized nevermore by herself, in just a few swings?? 

Relsh turned to find Fern, who had already stood and walked over to her. Floyd had relaxed and quickly let his spear in the ground disappear. Opal also signed out, looking over at Relsh and Fern with a big smile that Mercury almost felt guilty that he accidentally saw. Opal started walking over towards them, asking them both if everything was okay.

Mercury watched Relsh as she nodded to Opal with a shy smile, her face then going back serious when they both looked at Fern, Relsh putting away her sword.

 _How the hell did I stand a chance to _ _that_ _?_

It made no sense that someone who could take care of a nevermore like that wouldn’t also be able to mop the _floor_ with Mercury. Was she going easy on them at the lake? Yesterday while _Opal_ was in trouble? He shook his head staring at her- she really was the tank, the strongest of this group. But she wasn't like that at _all_ when they fought yesterday...

 _What is she trying to hide_? 

  
  
  


The sky had been blue and clam all day, Ginger laid on the forest floor looking out at it from between the leaves of the trees. He missed Ray, but he knew how stubborn Ray could be- especially since he knows Ginger was still mad at him.

Ginger sighed, rolling to his side. He was still a little angry at Ray about the whole kid-napping the huntress student thing. Just once he would like Ray not to be the mom of the group and just take his boyfriend’s side! Opal was a big girl, he didn’t have to lecture her and him about stuff Ray never would ever get! Ray’s never had to deal with the stuff they had to… But still, he missed Ray so much! Ginger sighed even deeper. He was always the one that made up with Ray! He couldn’t just give in cause he missed the cutie. 

Ginger rolled back onto his back. He decided to drop it for now, it would just make him crazy. At least he’ll be the first one off, maybe he could make-up with Ray… He looked over at where they were set-up in the woods, and wished Nyx would just come back already!

In the corner giggling and whispering was Mauve and Cray, who annoyingly clung together to tell each other their secrets. Ginger rolled his eyes. Being alone with these guys was just a pain in the ass. What were they sneakily talking about anyway?

“-Ya? She’s cute?”

“Yeah, but you're missing the point, baby-cakes.” Cray snagged the poster from Mauve and looked back down at his pad that was broken and old and chunky. He was clicking away into it with some script.

“It’s the same release day as the tracker!” Cray put the screen above the wanted poster of the cute girl with green hair and red eyes to show Mauve the wanted poster of a big scary man on his pad. “He was right, this guy is wanted to, but he wasn’t on the database for Mal.”

“That’s weird? Who cares?” 

Cray looked back at the pad. Now that Miss Mal had cut them off, the information he gathered that day she kicked them all out was just Mercury’s name and picture of his face. He was able to dig around with Mauve today, finding a wanted poster for Hazel but with no explanation on why he was targeted with _that_ much money on him, a lot more than Mal’s reward for Mercury. But now that Cray saw that Mercury was right about how the Hazel dude had his own wanted posters, he was just curious as to what the connection might be. 

“I think they’re both after him, maybe…” Cray held out the poster of the girl. He found it hanging weeks ago and only kept it because he thought she was hot. It was the same kind of wanted poster as Hazel’s, which he was surprised by. 

“You don’t even know who this girl is?” Mauve sighed at him. “Let’s not jump the gun cause you want to get laid.”

“It’s the _same_ day as Miro’s tracker-” Cray nudged Mauve with his head, not even bothering to remember Mercury’s name. “There's got to be something there.”

“Get Ray to hack it-” Mauve referenced Miss Mal's site as he pointed to the pad.

“-We’re not going to convince them to go back for _that_ again, they’re still telling _me_ that it’s _my_ job to pay it all back.”

“Hahaha- sucks for you.” 

Cray and Mauve started wrestling on the forest floor and it made Ginger groan out from his space a little ways away. 

“But really-” Cray stopped chuckling to look at Mauve seriously as he held him in a headlock. “-What _is_ he trying to hide?”


	5. Chapter 5

“Fern, this way-” Noah carefully nudged the curious boy away from a stand in the market, trying to stick together with Ray, Opal, and Cray in front of them. 

They had spent the last two months trying to get to Mistral to look for work, and today was their first outing in the big city. Noah would have liked staying behind with Floyd much better than trying to maneuver through these giant crowds, but hearing that Fern wanted to check it out, Noah felt like he had to join.

Ray was trying to lead the way as Cray kept running around left and right, saying he was sure he knew of the _perfect_ place to find missions, and Ray arguing to him that _he_ knew the underbelly of this city _way_ better.

Opal on the other hand was just walking behind them, not taking much mind to the two idiots she was following. Like Fern, she was also taken back by the city. Looking around and seeing how tall some of the buildings built in the mountainside went up to. Noah knew they were in the dirtiest parts of the city, the slums, but Fern and Opal treated it like they were at a carnival, especially Fern- which Noah was very happy about. Sure, Fern still stayed quiet and refused to talk most of the time, but it was much better than his soulless existence before. Now Fern was just a quiet kid, who heartfully became curious as he looked all around in amazement. Noah chuckled at Fern, and looked back up to give Opal a look, happy that she had completely trusted Noah to keep his eyes on Fern instead of her’s, but…

“Um? Guys???” Noah stopped dead in his tracks. Ray and Cray turned back to look at Noah who was quickly freaking out. “Where’s Opal?” He had only looked away for a _second_!

Cray and Ray both looked at each other.

“Shit.”

Luckily for them, Opal had only wandered off two blocks away from them, looking at a big billboard in the corner of an alleyway. 

“Opal!” Noah ran towards her, happy she was okay.

“Don’t just _do_ that you idiot!” Ray stomped over. “Even if you _think_ you _can_ take care of yourself, this place is _easy_ to get lost in!”

Opal paid them all no mind, still staring up at the wall in front of them. Cray suddenly started bouncing around which made Fern flinch.

“OH-OH! This is it! This is the one! Opal you found it~”

The board that Opal had found was a mission board. They came to this city because it is said that the missions only given to the Huntsmen here sometimes end up on a board when the Hunters don’t want to do them. They would take the money and give a little percent of it to the person they handed the mission off to. Sometimes the missions on here were too dangerous for a scared huntsmen, but most of the time it was from lazy huntsmen who skimmed off the top. But these missions were the best paying jobs out on these streets; it wasn’t everyday that normal people would get in on such a prestigious gig. And running into a board like this in their situation was like hitting the jackpot. 

Noah looked over behind him at Fern, who was looking at his surroundings numbly; Noah hoped he would stay ignorant to the situation, as long as Fern was still in his haze. Noah wanted to keep Fern out of the whole business as much as possible, and he was almost there in making Opal agree. But she- she was stubborn… 

“Alright- Alright!” Ray tried to calm Cray down. “We _need_ to check them _all_ _first_ , don’t just _go_ for the _highest_ one!” 

They both started pushing missions in each other’s faces while Noah looked around the board to see which would be the least deadliest option. But Opal took a piece of torn and sun-bleached paper off the board and nodded her head.

“Let’s do this one.”

Cray and Ray looked over at the paper she was holding, and both of their jaws dropped.

“You can’t be serious.” Cray deadpanned at her, looking from the page to her and back.

Noah walked over to see it- scared on what kind of mission she wanted to dive into, but...

“Are you kidding me?!” Ray ripped the paper out of her hands to glare at her. “This is _hardly_ a reward at all! There’s no money out of _this_!”

“Yeah.” Cray sighed, lifting his arms behind his head to rest on them. “That’s some cheap ass shit right there. And it’s that far?”

“Look at _this-”_ Ray showed Cray the paper and then compared it to the other mission papers. “-This is either a fake, or actually almost _seven_ years old! It doesn’t even fit with the current mission layouts-”

“No yeah. And just _look_ at what they’re asking for-” Cray stretched out the paper more and Noah could get a much better look at it:

It looked more like a hand-written note than a mission, with scribbly black lines hardly drawing out words. On the bottom was the measly reward money, with two more higher numbers scratched off above it. There was one phrase written harshly and underlined at the top:  _Grimm infestation_ . Noah shuddered. Whatever was left of that place was _long_ gone. 

“So, no.” Cray stated.

 _“Yeah-_ Just no.” Ray agreed.

Opal tore the piece of paper away from them with a scorn. She held it in front of them for all to see.

“Don’t you guys even _know_ what kind of place this is?” She angrily poked at the paper where the location was stated.

Cray shook his head along with Noah, who never even heard of the place before- but Ray’s face lit up.

“ _Limba_ .” Ray whispered. Looking up at Opal “-It _used_ to be a pretty _wealthy_ town- back when _a lot_ of elites where _trying_ to run their _own_ villages out in the middle of _nowhere_ \- Limba was built in the _crack_ of a mountain- and _had_ good protection for _many_ years- How do _you_ know about _that_?” Ray gestured to Opal.

“I don’t- just heard it was a big city that had to get abandoned.” Noah caught Opal’s quick look of remorse- and he decided that there might be something _else_ to explain how she knew about this place...

“ _Yeah-_ it was crazy-” Ray exclaimed. ”-they _were_ big enough to kind of make their own _capital_ out there, but it was _still_ small… They were protected by Mantel, but they kind of stopped and just _let_ it get run over in the end, _not_ enough resources, and they just… _Let_ it happen.”

“That’s insane-” Noah whispered and checked on Fern from the corner of his eye- he was still spacing out on the buildings in wonder. “-So they just left them? Why?”

“I think it’s ‘cause of this~” Cray pointed at the reward money, and how it went down _twice_ already. 

Noah sighed and turned to Opal. “It’s a rescue mission in a ghost town, we-”

“I know.” Opal looked at him. “That’s why we should go.”

They looked at her puzzled while Ray was about to snap after rolling his eyes, but Opal cut them all off.

“It’s an abandoned rich city. There’s got to be good shit in there-”

“But isn’t that what bandits are for?” Cray raised an eyebrow.

“And _what_ about the _grim_??” Ray continued.

“-That’s the whole point,” Opal stated. “-wouldn’t bandits worry about grim too? And whoever heard of a grim nest lasting after five years?”

Ray started arguing with her about different species’ nesting habits as Cray chuckled and shrugged as he teased her, but Noah grabbed another piece of paper off the wall to show them all.

“This guy’s easy, and it’ll be enough for the garage you want to build.” Noah grinned at Ray, who snatched the paper from Noah- reading it and started nodding.

“Oh come _on_ that’s still too little-” Cray sang out in a moan, he was going for the big bucks.

“Well, if it _is_ …” Ray took the mission and showed the location to Cray with a deadpan getting lost in a grin. “Opal’s town is on the way.”

Opal clutched her piece of paper and beamed up at Noah silently, but he was able to catch it.

Cray was shaking his head as Ray was finally the one to tease him about something. Opal looked back at the paper and sighed. She was thankful Noah found that for her- and Noah knew it. He figured it wasn’t something she looked at and followed away from them and _Fern_ \- unless it was something she was very attached to... What Noah didn’t know was that Opal had no attachments to this town whatsoever. Opal only recognized the desperation in the mission letter.

\-------------------------------

  
  


It had been another day of cleaning the garage, and Mercury might have been done by now if that nevermore didn’t ruin his first day of process two days ago. He looked out and sighed. The sun was long gone, and the twilight was giving out, he decided to close up and get the rest done tomorrow, after all this was around the time Relsh or Ghost would come by and fetch him for dinner. He started putting away the cleaning things, which really was just a broken bucket and hand-made brooms and mops with cheap soap. 

Nothing much of value had happened since the grim attack- which thankfully no one really got injured by.

Mercury remembered following everyone into the cockpit a little after the attack, with Noah and Relsh and Ghost trying to get Floyd to sit down so they could check his sprangs. Noah told Floyd he had broken a wrist, but Floyd looked fine to Mercury. Floyd wouldn’t let them touch it anyway. And that was the last Mercury saw of Floyd, so he wasn’t really sure how that actually went.

That was also the last he saw Opal, who apparently went back to sleep to let Noah handle Floyd. 

Although Mercury was way more weary of Relsh since the incident, the rest of the team, especially Fern, had gotten a little better with Mercury. Noah kept his positive attitude, Ghost kept going on like he never was an enemy of there’s, but Ray and Relsh stayed a little more distant. As well as Cyan, who stopped being as shy around Mercury, as he and Fern had two more sparring sessions that she _had_ to watch, as well as watching him near Ghost when he helped her train- but her coming out of her shell around him might have been worse off.

She was a grumpy and mean girl! She always had something _snarky_ to say to him- always gave him a _mood_ whenever he talked, and openly mocked him for the smallest things! He wasn’t very crushed for her hatred of him, just completely annoyed by it. She acted like a spoiled princess, and him being around her was worse than not getting her way! He thought Ghost’s playful whines were annoying? Cyan would _actually_ wine about him to his face! She was so stuck-up about it too! The worst part was that Mercury really felt like he was getting somewhere with Fern- but Cyan was always around to tear him away. But she wasn't always with him... Mercury looked back to the moment late in the night on the day the grim attacked:

It had been a nightmare- with Mercury waking up crashing on the floor from his hammock with a loud metal bang. Sweaty, he found his shirt and tried to crawl his way to the bathroom- he needed some water or something- he’s heart was pounding too fast. He refused to sleep in just his boxers anymore, since Ghost might just _teleport_ in whenever she felt like it- He didn’t want them to know, but the extra layer helped overheat him immensely. Nyx had shown where the bathroom was once before, and since that one time he hadn’t needed it- he tried to crawl down the hatchet realizing he had no idea where it could be. He fell head-first onto the hallway floor. 

Mercury was surprised to hear a small giggle from the hall.

He looked up to see Fern, who was holding his mouth looking away from Mercury to hide his giggles.

“S-s-sorry.”

Mercury rolled his eyes with a smile, guessing the fall woke him up a bit out of his nightmarish thoughts. “It’s fine,” Mercury whispered. “Sorry- did I wake you up?”

Fern shrugged a little and shook his head. “I-I-I thought I-I-I h-heard a bang… A p-pipe or m-m-maybe another… o-one...” 

“Oh.” Mercury stood up and looked around, thinking Fern still looked a little freaked out about today. “That was probably me too, I was looking for the bathroom, my bad.”

There was a moment where Fern watched Mercury suspiciously up and down, but then shyly looked at a wall and moved around Mercury.

“I-i-it’s this w-way.”

That’s right- the bathroom was pretty close by, but Mercury forgot that it was under the spiral staircase on the walkway below because- well- it looked like the staircase ended at the walkway with only the truck’s engine parts under- but there was a little thin hatch that opened up, and just enough space to crawl down into a room with it’s walls surrounded by the machine and it’s floor caged over the bare ground. There was a large water tank sitting in there with five hoses attached to it that went out of the room to who knows where, one of the hoses ended wrapped on the floor next to a bucket, with a rusty falsest attached. There was a toilet that didn’t have a cover or seat that used the bucket water to flush. So since that one time- Mercury has been peeing in the woods. But right now he didn’t care, he crawled down not bothering to close the lid, and took the hose to spray on his face the second he got his shirt off.

Fern couldn’t help but watch the whole thing, leaning down to get a better look. “A-a-are you a-alright?” 

Mercury let the water fall over his face down his chest to get his pants wet, down his legs and through the floor to make the grass under the truck muddy. He had pretty much already calmed down, but letting water roll off him like this was his guilty pleasure. He turned off the water and turned to give Fern a smirk.

“I’m good,” He picked up his shirt from the ground, and since it was already wet he just used it to dry his face off. “-thanks.”

Fern just nodded to him and waited. Mercury was lost in his own thoughts and it took him a while to notice Fern just sitting there.

“Sorry, did you need to-” Mercury gestured to the toilet, but Fern shook his head.

“H-how’s… How’s your b-back?” Mercury looked at him confused for a minute before Fern went on, looking anywhere but at Mercury. “Y-y-y-you- you- c-crashed it t-today- on the t-truck.” 

Oh? Mercury turned to look at his back, he had almost forgotten, getting swept up in the raw power Relsh had kept hidden. “It’s fine, not even a scratch.” Mercury unknowingly beamed at Fern. No one else noticed that Mercury got hit, or was even hurt, not even Mercury! It made him like Fern even more, thinking how he noticed something small like that in the middle of his life-threatening situation today.

Then Mercury remembered something else weird that happened- When Fern got hit, his aura grew- just like it did when he ate dust... Mercury tore his gaze away confused. Did he have dust _on_ him? But the way it happened- right after he got hurt...

 _Just like Yang..._

“R-right.” Fern got up and started walking away. And Mercury chuckled, it would still take a long while till this kid would befriend Mercury before being scared of him-

Suddenly Fern poked his head back in, still refusing to look at Mercury.

“T-t-thanks- for t-taking that hit f-for me t-t-t-today.” And then Fern completely disappeared as Mercury heard someone run up the spiral staircase. 

-Mercury turned off the lights to the garage. So, things with Fern had been getting better, but Cyan had been trying her hardest not to let that happen it seemed. 

Mercury walked on through the truck, knowing his way from the garage to the engine room, but everything after that was just confusing… The group had a habit of not letting Mercury wander around alone, and at first Mercury thought it was because they were being helpful- but when he saw that Relsh went out of her way to stop what she was doing to go with him through the truck yesterday, it all just clicked in his head. Of course they were going to keep an eye on him to make sure he wasn’t snooping around. But today here he was, and of course once he got up to it, he tried to open the door that Mauve closed in front of Mercury before. But it was locked. And it made Mercury even more curious, but he would drop it for now. He walked through the Engine room and sighed as he stood up from the small entrance into the _crazy_ part of the truck.

He knew to take _this_ way to the underground walkways, but they were more confusing than the hallways up here- and that way was _always_ longer than going straight down this hallway for a bit. That day he followed Opal and everyone threw the truck after defeating the nevermore, Mercury was reassured, this way was _much_ faster. He looked out ahead to the quick path he was _sure_ was the same faster route that Mauve took him down the first day and then the other day with everyone. He started walking down.

_I need to get a map or something_

His boots echoed maybe twenty feet down before a white light shined from behind his back-

“Ugh.” He sighed- he totally got busted. He turned to face Ghost. “Okay, okay, I’m lost-”

Ghost quickly slapped his shoulder lightly and brought a finger to her lips. She surprised him with an actual serious look- one he hadn’t seen from her since she grabbed Cyan to save her from the nevermore’s attack. She grabbed his shoulder- and suddenly they were in white. He felt his stomach turn and he quickly clenched his body to sturdy himself as he dangled in the white abyss. He was suddenly stepping down on solid ground, trying to regain his balance almost unsuccessfully. He was in front of the kitchen- but looking made him want to puke as he finally found his knees to grab.

“ _Nice_ Relsh!” Ghost winked over towards the kitchen table. Once Mercury’s head stopped spinning the first thing he noticed was, yet again, an amazing and delicious smell. And of course, as for the last two nights, the smell of curry was almost staining his nose. But don’t get him wrong, it wasn’t all that bad.

Sitting at the table was Relsh, Cyan, Fern, and Ray, with Noah at the counter of the kitchen chopping at something. A familiar scene- yet it was more quiet than usual, with Ray and Relsh sitting much closer together, with Ray playing with something on his lap. 

“ _Ugh-_ where were you? You know Ghost went _all_ the way to the garage to find you!” Cyan stuck her nose up at Mercury, he had the habit of ignoring her when she was like _that_ , looking away to give Ghost a nod.

“My bad.” He playfully bowed at her, being sure to show off his dizziness from the teleportation she just forced him through. But he didn’t want to come off as passive. Ghost really was the only one he felt comfortable joking with so far, other than maybe Noah. 

Ghost rolled her eyes at Cyan and then gave Mercury a dismissive wave. “Hey, it’s not really that big of a deal for _me_.”

Mercury sat down as he sarcastically nodded at Ghost’s statement. Then he heard a quiet groan coming out of Relsh.

“Damn-it.” She cursed as she got up from the table. 

Ghost also flinched in her moan. “Really? I’m sorry- I should have-”

“It’s fine-” Relsh gave Ghost a look that told her not to feel guilty, but Ghost still looked it pretty bad.

 _Wait what? What’s going on?_ Mercury looked around, but no one seemed to be questioning this like he was.

“Let me know when I get back-” Relsh looked at Ray as she got to the stairs. “And leave me a bowl Noah.” And she walked up through the exit.

Mercury looked around as it got really quiet. What was all _that_ about? Whatever it was, it somehow gave Cyan justification to send him another death glare. Just what was her problem?

“Okay-” Noah said to himself, putting a lid over a pot. “Rice will be done in two minutes!” He turned to face them all with a smile as he leaned back onto the kitchen counter, nodding his chin at Ray. “Did they send it yet?”

Ray glared up at Noah tiredly, his eyes quickly glancing over in Mercury’s direction and then back at Noah to give him a look.

Noah shook his head with a shrug. “Well- did they?” He ignored Ray’s caution.

Ray sighed and largely rolled his eyes, leaning back in his chair to reveal to the table a radio with a dangling key-board attached to it. It must have been something that Ray made, cause Mercury _knew_ no one would try to sell something looking like _that_. And also the fact that it looked like it was made from three separate devices. 

“ _No_ , not yet. I’m getting _worried_ \- they said they _would_ around this time.” Ray sighed out.

Mercury took the bite. “Who? What’s this about?”

Ray just stared at him as Fern looked like he was going to have a break down, looking around to see how to answer the question while Cyan next to him acted like she was insulted Mercury even asked. Ghost on the other hand, like Noah, looked like she was more than happy to fill him in.

“It’s from Nyx and the boys! They sent a message an hour ago saying they think they found the trail- said they would contact to confirm later.” Ghost chirped. 

“Good timing too.” Noah nodded. “It’s better to know now with the trade so soon.” He said that last part mainly to Ray with a bit of a smirk winked over towards him, but Ray paid no mind as he sat with the radio typing away the codes that came up.

“I _hope_ they bring me this time!” Ghost gloated. “It’s no fun around here!” 

“Not you.” Ray snapped from his concentration on the little invention in front of him. “You would _hate_ it.” He continued, still not looking up from his typing. “It’s just _stake outs_ right now- you wouldn’t even be _useful_.”

Ghost pouted at Ray, and it gave Mercury a chance to speak up:

“Stake outs?” He asked with a bit of a grin. 

When Mercury saw Noah look away in a shy shame, he knew he made a mistake.

“ _Now_ \- Don’t _you_ be getting _any_ ideas-” Ray started going off, finally taking his eyes off the radio to rant at Mercury. “We can’t just _leave_ something like _that_ with _you.”_

“What?” Mercury shrugged defensively. “You already know I’m not here to harm anyone- I just want a ride- I’ll do whatever it takes to get to Vacuo as soon as possible!” 

Ray looked at Mercury up and down with a scoff. Mercury rolled his eyes and continued: “-You _know_ I can handle myself.” He tried to hide his embarrassment of rejection with a cheeky smirk at Ray. 

“True!” Ghost laughed with a goofy thumbs up. Ray shook his head.

“You’re not _getting_ it-” Ray hissed before Noah cut him off:

“It’s not about _strength_ here, it’s more like-”

“ _We_ run a _delegate operation.”_ Ray snapped. He went back to the radio. “Yeah, I _don’t_ trust you- _definitely_ _not_ to do something like _this._ You’re just a _little_ too…” Ray looked away from the radio in his hands to the ceiling, then looked at Mercury to give him a look with a raise in his eyebrows. “ _Loud_.” Ray went back to typing away before Mercury could even give him a glare.

“‘ _Loud’_?” Mercury hissed.

Ray deeply dead panned his machine. “Yeah, _loud_.”

Mercury crossed his arms over his chest, about to rebuttal- but Ghost let out a big laugh as she loudly patted on Mercury’s back.

“Ha! That’s they’re excuse for me too!”

And the quiet tension of him and Ray’s little _discussion_ finally broke, with a few chuckles here and there from Fern and Noah. Cyan on the other hand did not look please, and honestly, he wasn’t either. But Mercury did catch that in that moment, Ray brought his hand up to casually cover his mouth with a friendly squint in his eyes, before he got back to decoding with an emotionless stare. 

“-Listen,” Mercury tried again- but Noah happened to call out at the same time:

“Rice is ready! Line up!” And everyone but Ray and him got up from the table. Mercury begrudgingly got up from the table to stand in the line too, only because it was too awkward to stay with Ray. He also wondered if Noah cut him off on purpose as well… But he couldn’t just clean garages the whole ride through- he needed to get Ray to admit that he would be _more_ than useful in their little missions- He was an _assassin_ , sneaking around was his specialty! Him loud? _Him_? How???

He didn’t notice that Ghost was joking to Fern about how much of a pouty scorn Mercury had on as he picked up the rice to place next to the curry on his stained plate. What could Mercury do though? Every time he tried to defend himself, the whole squad got intimidated. Did he really have to wait until they forgot about their fights to get in on pushing this truck faster??

The small talk on the table stopped suddenly, and it made Mercury click out of his thoughts to watch what they were all staring at.

Ray had his finger up at the group, leaning the radio into his ear as he quickly started typing with purpose with his other hand. They all watched him together as it stayed like that for a bit, too afraid to take a single bite so Ray could catch every code.

“Alright.” Ray put his finger down and used both hands to start typing away. Only Ghost wasn’t afraid to break the silence with him.

“So? What did they-”

“ _S_ _till_ decoding-” Ray numbly snapped. Everyone seemed to lean in as they all waited, even Mercury felt like he was on the edge of his seat.

“Okay.” Ray sat back and took his eyes off the radio to turn to Noah. “It’s a match.” 

Mercury almost jumped back in his seat as Ghost, Noah, and Cyan leaped up from their chairs.

“Yes!” They shouted around, Cyan and Ghost holding on to each other as they spun, Noah holding on to Fern’s hands to make him dance with him from his seat, Fern wasn’t getting up, but he let Noah drag his limbs around with a beaming smile. Ray didn’t look amused at all, but he did have a look that was more smug than before. He looked at them all with a dead pan:

“Oh come _on,_ we have _money_ , you guys don’t _need_ to be like _that_.”

“Still!” Ghost swung on one leg and caught Cyan as she dramatically leaned on Ghost.

“It’s a _reassurance!”_ Cyan playfully scoffed out. Ray rolled his eyes and put the radio on the table to finally go for his food. People started sitting back down again, but the cheering didn’t stop. It seemed to be a very joyous occasion, and Mercury couldn't mumble over it to complain about his exclusion on the mission. 

The door to the cockpit opened, and Relsh came storming back in, looking over at Ghost with a nod. “She’s fine now, don’t worry.”

That seemed to put Ghost out of her happy mood as Relsh joined them at the table. Noah quickly wanted to get that swept under so he nudged Ray as he showed Relsh where she could find her plate.

“We got a match!” Noah called out to her. Relsh got her plate ready, and like Ray was, she didn’t look very excited about the news, but she looked more calmed since she first entered back in. 

“Good.” She nodded as she sat down and looked over at Ray. “Did they drop it yet?”

Ray shook his head at her. “No, they’re going to wait, Nyx doesn’t feel up to it.” He seemed annoyed when he said that last part.

Relsh shook her head with a bit of a sigh. “That’s fine, we’ll do it after the trade…” Relsh looked up at Ghost, who still looked guilty. Relsh let a small smirk fall onto her lips. “Why don’t you and Opal go tomorrow?”

Ghost’s misery seemed to be snapped out of her as she looked at Relsh in amazed shock.

“Really?” Ghost exclaimed. Relsh let the smirk out more as she nodded at Ghost.

“Yeah, seems like you would be helpful if Cray fucked up.” 

Ghost beamed as she fist bumped into the air. “Hell yeah I would be! But- but what about you?”

Relsh finally decided to acknowledge the ‘are you for REAL?’ stare that Ray was giving her and she sighed at him. 

“Opal and I decided it- it would be more efficient this way.” 

Ray rolled his eyes away from her and kept eating. Looking like he had a _lot_ more to say on the subject. Relsh just continued her speech towards Ghost. 

“So go to bed _early_ tonight, okay? The boys will be here early for the trade, and Opal will _not_ wait for you.”

Ghost chuckled and laughed as she reassured Relsh that she would go to bed on time for once. 

_Tomorrow?_

Mercury’s mood went down a bit more. Was Ghost, the only person he felt like he could talk normally with, going off for a few days to leave him by himself? On a mission they refused to bring him on because he’s too ‘loud’, but they’ll bring Ghost? The girl who sparkles as she loudly appears like she’s in a performance every second? They went with _her?_ Mercury couldn’t tell if he was jealous of her, angry that they thought she was better than him for this mission, or upset that he would lose his only somewhat buddy for what looked to be for a whole week. Alone with Relsh and Ray and Cyan? With a silent Fern who’s more afraid of Mercury than trusting, and- well- thank goodness for Noah.

Mercury looked up at the big guy now, who had just finished his plate of food. He almost wanted to laugh at the way Noah said ‘I got my eye on you’ when they first met, only for Noah to truly pull through. He was keeping an eye on Mercury, but in a much more friendly way than Mercury would ever had recognized. When Mercury was lost or felt awkward or shy, Noah knew what to say to make him feel included, make him feel watched after. Like the little outcast kid in the classroom who was actually good friends with the teacher- and his teacher would find little ways to get him off the hook from his bullies without making it look like he was defending Mercury.

And for the last few days, Mercury noticed it was how Noah was with all of them. He found ways to get everyone to carefully poke fun at a member who was too riled up and needed a laugh, got people off things that created arguments easily with a few comments- and Mercury didn’t know how yet- but Cyan’s torment towards him was _never_ like it was when Noah was around. She acted more in a quiet rage towards Mercury if Noah was in the room than actually going out of her way to forcefully push his buttons. At first, Mercury got a huge fatherly vibe from him, but Noah’s actions lined up more like the grandmother of the house who tried to keep all the kids under control. Mercury was done with his meal, and let an excited Ghost take his plate off to clean. He glanced up at Noah again, and Mercury felt a little better. He could play their clean-up boy, but he was sure Noah wouldn’t let him stay like that forever. After-all, him pushing it seemed to be the one thing Noah didn’t like out of Mercury.

  
  


Nyx collapsed next to a tree, unleashing her large black gauntlet off her arm to let it loudly crash under her before she slid down the tree. 

“Hehe, _nice_.” Mauve laughed and Cray chuckled. Ginger rolled his eyes and sat down next to her.

“You holding up?” He asked her. She nodded to him as she held her ribs.

“I-I think they’re still broken.” She panted out. Ginger sighed. Nyx had pretty great aura control, so when she said that she could take care of it herself a few days ago, no one blinked an eye- but not even she realized how badly she had been hit. And she didn’t put enough aura on it- now it seemed to be getting much worse. But she was still able to sneak around with them, she was stubborn like that.

“That asshole…” Ginger snapped, but Nyx just shook her head with a nod of her chin. 

“It’s not- I mean…” She looked away from Ginger. “I’m sorry, I know you wanted-”

Ginger stood up. “No it’s fine.” He definitely wasn’t going to let Nyx continue like this, a few days of rest and Noah’s medicine and she’ll be right back out here again, but…

Ginger turned to Mauve and Cray, who went back to whispering and giggling until they noticed Ginger’s panned out stare at them.

“And _why_ can _you_ stay out longer?” He angrily gestured to Mauve. Sure, Ginger wasn’t just going to let Cray stay out here with another terrible fighter, but he needed a good explanation as to why he couldn’t go back to his boyfriend tomorrow!

Mauve just laughed and shook his head at Ginger, Cray smugly answered for him.

“He's got a secret special mission~” Cray sang, holding on to Mauve’s shoulder and pushing him around, showing him off like a salesman would and Mau was the _one_ product you needed to complete your happiness! 

Ginger rolled his eyes. “ _Yours_ or _ours_?” 

Mauve and Cray looked at each other with a big grin that they faced to Ginger as if this answered his question. It did, but it only pissed him off more. Ginger sighed out and looked up into the night sky. Maybe when Relsh and Opal came up, he could convince one of them to let him off the hook…

  
  
  


_................She’s alive..._

Far away in a continent with little population, a girl looked out into a landscape of red and black. The sky crowded in dark clouds, which always made the place look as if it was stuck in eternal night. She didn’t know if she was overjoyed, or the insides her own abyss of rage confused her enough as she looked out at the black tar fields. 

_How long did she know?_

That pissed her off the most. What was the point of hiding that Cinder was still alive? For so many weeks, almost months even? She turned back to look at her room, and almost wanted to give herself the illusion that she didn’t just break everything inside there out of anger. She thought she was _trusted_ now, she had been _training_ to take the roll of a maiden for months now- she was ready. Was all that for nothing? She almost tripped over whatever was left of her bed, and she forcefully kicked the wood at the wall and it almost felt like it would break through. 

Why wouldn’t Salem let her go to Cinder? She _needed_ Cinder- she needed someone to agree with her- she couldn’t take any of this…

Her mind seemed to calm itself as she looked down to her pocket to her scroll. Her anger found a new victim.

_That coward_

How dare he- just what was he thinking? She had the task to kill her partner before he let any information out. But secretly in her heart, she felt like she could bring him back. 

He was confused- he just needed some _space._ She would drag him back here to get him to his senses, hopefully being able to convince Salem that he was still useful. Even though in the back of Emerald’s mind, she knew that would never be the case.

_Just get back here already you useless scrap of metal._

Her mind hissed out as she looked down at the latest message from Hazel that said:

‘Found a trail.’


	6. Chapter 6

The three had hiked down the foggy trail for almost two hours already. They couldn’t see it, but they knew that off the path on their feet was an edge with a sharp drop. They clung to the side of the rocky mountain on it’s skinny path. Opal let Floyd lead the way, as he seemed to be the best climber out of them all, with Cray close behind her, painting and almost complaining the whole way.

“Why isn’t  _ Ray  _ here-  _ he  _ should be dragged in this too-”

Opal sighed annoyed, Cray had said he was excited to check it out, but he wanted Ray to be dragged into the danger too. She let her back leg fall onto Cray’s foot- and he let out a yelp.

“-You icey-”

“Oh?” She exclaimed. “Sorry, was that  _ your  _ foot?”

They started to picker as Opal almost ran into Floyd’s back. They looked up at him as he was silently standing there, looking into the fog with one hand reaching for his bow on his back. Cray and Opal also stopped to look out, taking out their weapons, silently watching to hear anything from within the fog.

Floyd kept watching, but after a bit he decided to drop it and kept walking down, Cray and Opal gave each other a look before following.

“Are we just lucky or something?” Cray whispered to Opal, eyes looking all around. “We should have ran into  _ something  _ by now…”

“Yeah…” Opal agreed. They were walking into the mountain ridge of Limba. Over the past few weeks, Opal had been convincing them that she **_is_** their melee fighting ace, showing them she was able to keep up with Floyd on their first mission, and out ran him on the last. They were finally starting to see what kind of warrior she really was. But still, it took a lot of convincing from her to everyone to go into Limba over the last few weeks- but after watching it from up top the mountain for the past few days in the fog, it seemed the town was truly abandoned by people and grim alike.

But- it was still so strange not to have  _ any  _ grim in the area at all _.  _ She kept her sickles out, watching the fog as it suddenly cleared up.

Right below them, the fog started lifting to a small town just a twenty minute hike down from them. It was large and beautiful, or it would be if everything was still together.

The buildings were wrecked, with some landslides covering half the town. It was overgrown and crumbling, with ruins from grim attacks everywhere. They have seen this view before, from miles above on that one clear day, but from here they could really get a good look at the devastation. They picked up the pace a bit, more weary now that they had a full view on their surroundings; being out in the open. 

They got down into the ridge. Carefully, they approached the town, and when Opal got closer, she realized her excuse to come: that there might be good shit in here, was bound to get her chewed out from Ray. All that was left here was ruins. But Cray wouldn’t tease her about it yet- the claw marks and blast holes made them all too wary to say anything. Especially since getting a better look at one of the landslides before them as they walked through the town.

They all recognized it right away- all quickly hiding behind some ruins from it to get a safer look. They felt the world get taken out from under their feet as they froze in fear only able to just stand there and watch. It was a grim nest, created out of one of the landslides that was basically on top of the village, the large entrance just sitting on the street in the middle of the town. Opal was shocked- It had to still be in use- grim were known to tear their entrances to shreds when they moved out- But  _ nothing  _ in the mission statement talked about a huge nest in the middle of  _ town _ ! Why wasn’t there any grim nearby- unless- 

“ _ Oh shit.”  _ Cray whispered. Opal wasn’t surprised that this would be the first she heard Cray actually be serious for his own life. She was starting to get the same idea.

“Did they... just let us walk in here?” She hissed. They were completely trapped at the bottom of the mountain ridge, and had no idea where all the grim from that big nest were hiding. Opal turned to Floyd, who still kept on an emotionless and not worried face, but there was one drop of sweat coming off his scar.

“Call them- we’ll make a run for it, maybe they can meet us halfway-” Opal whispered to him, cruising to herself as she started to feel her legs shaking. She was looking all around for the piles of grim that should be after them at any second- She couldn’t believe they couldn’t spot that nest from up the mountain- she couldn’t believe that after all this, she wouldn’t be able to protect Fern- that she had gotten them trapped- This wasn’t an abandoned town, this was grim territory now, and she just walked their dinner  _ to  _ them.

“We won’t make it, look at that thing-” Cray whisper-shouted as he gestured to the giant nest. And Opal knew he was right- but even in this situation she couldn’t give him that satisfaction. She heard a nose from behind them, and Opal tightly gripped onto her sickles to at least die fighting-

“It’s fine, it’s empty.”

All of them bounced off their feet at the voice behind them, Cray falling off his feet and Opal in an out of body experience- just when did someone-

They all turned to the person behind them, who looked bored and tired at them all as they held a large rusted sword over their shoulder giving all three of them a look.

Opal glanced over at Cray who looked just as confused and shocked as she was. She turned back to the other girl with the sword, who was about the same age as them. She had long red hair that was tangled from years of not having anything to tie it all up with. She mainly wore rags, and looked like she hadn’t eaten in weeks, covered in dirt. Yet, she had strong defined muscles poking out from under her rags. She looked back at Opal and gave her a glare.

“Why are you here?” She demanded from them.

Cray looked at her big sword and put his hands up. “We-we- We’re hunters! We had a mission here, so why don’t you put that away-”

The girl glared at Cray, then looked at them all up and down and scoffed. 

“If you’re hunters, then sorry, but we’re not paying you guys. You're way too late.”

Cray chuckled as he tried to stay in character, still eyeing the rusty sword on her shoulder. “W-we’re sorry about that…” He nervously held his hands together and nodded at her. She didn’t seem amused. She looked over at Opal, who didn’t wear a look of fear. They shared a glance at each other.

“You live here?” Opal asked, her look of recognition and awe at the red-haired girl had not stopped yet. 

The girl in rags looked at Opal more darkly, giving her a slight nod. Opal looked around the town- she lived like this? Opal felt pain for the survivors of the village, looking at the girl in front of her in such a starved state. How did they even feed themselves down here? 

“Why didn’t you all leave?” Opal couldn’t help but ask, she looked back at the girl who’s dark expression had now blackened into an abyss as she glared at Opal. 

“They tried.” The girl spat. And Opal watched her glare with stubborn clear eyes not holding back. The darkness in the red haired girl’s eyes was strong, and grew as Opal kept watching. Opal took a glance at the rest of the empty town before looking back at the girl, and realization opened a deep pit inside Opal’s stomach.  It… couldn’t be... Opal saw something in the red haired girl’s eyes that she was _too_ familiar with, and she had to take a chance to ask, hoping she was wrong:

“Is… is it just you now?” 

The girl did not stop her glare at Opal as she refused to answer the question. The wind picked up and blew through the ruins of the town. Their staring contest took a weird turn when the red haired girl suddenly realized that Opal had eyes that seem to say she came from a place she understood... 

Cray chuckled in his nerves and tried to change the subject. “So, where did all the grim go?”

The girl snapped her head to glare at him. She took her sword off her shoulder- Cray yelped- and she stuck it deep in the ground to lean on and look at them all. 

“They never left.” She grumpily stated. “Now leave, you won’t-”

“- _ Never _ left?!?!” Cray went back towards the ground looking around with worry.

“Yeah.” She bit. Waiting for them to leave the town. 

They looked at each other, Cray raising his eyebrows as to say ‘let’s get the fuck out of here’ and Floyd, again, looked like he didn’t mind either way if they got something out of this village or not. But Opal was more curious than scared of the girl, and she was surprised that  _ Cray _ wasn’t on this with her. She ignored Cray’s pleading eyes and looked up at the girl.

“How did you guys get rid of all the grim?” 

The red haired girl stopped leaning on her sword to point a thumb at it.

Opal shook her head. “Yeah, but who...” 

The red haired girl shook her head. “Those of us left.”

And Opal stopped. Opal finally could see the tired and deflated look to the girl in front of her. And Opal’s jaw dropped. Cray looked at Opal confused, then back at the girl, then back at Opal, then at Floyd who gave him a nod, then at the girl and went  _ oh.  _

“ _ Holy shit _ ...” Cray whispered. All three of them stared at the last surviving member of Limba, who apparently single-handedly killed every last grim in the nest herself. 

  
  


\--------------------------------

“I’m home!” 

Everyone was up in front of the garage as the sun started rising over the lands. People seemed to ignore Mauve’s declaration of arrival to check on how Nyx was on the bike next to his.

“It’s fine.” She barked at them all, pushing Noah’s worried hands off of her ribs. “I just needed more rest is all.”

Mercury tried to keep cleaning in the garage, but he had to take notice of the little glare Opal sent his way after Nyx said that. Almost everyone from the truck but the two kids and Floyd were out here. Ghost had no energy it seemed for the first time in her life, dragging herself over to Mauve’s bike in a yawn, letting her heavy back-pack take her off balance. 

“So much excitement!” Mauve beamed at her, he certainly seemed to be a morning person, as Mercury was surprised to see someone get on Ghost’s nerves for a change. “Do you even remember any of this?” Mauve teased Ghost as she moaned, gesturing to the bike. Even though she lazily reassured him, he kept telling her every part of the bike, explaining it’s functions like he would to an alien. 

Nyx had finally let Noah help her off the bike as she handed the bar to Opal. 

“You good?” Nyx asked Opal. Opal beamed at her, tiny bags under her eyes.

“Yeah, thanks for catching em’.” Opal had Relsh close behind her, and she stood close to the bike as Opal got on. 

Nyx rolled her eyes and laughed. “ _ That-  _ well that part’s on you, good luck- Make sure Cray follows though. He’s _ more _ than a handful right now, sorry.”

Opal playfully groaned- which made Mercury picture her as someblondie else- as Opal lifted her face into the sky. “Figures. Don’t worry ‘bout it.” She gave Nyx a genuine nod and looked up at Relsh- Mercury tore his eyes back to cleaning. 

“Keep an eye on  _ things _ .” Opal whispered. Referencing to many things that Relsh understood. Relsh nodded and came in a little closer.

“Yeah,” Relsh smirked, gesturing to Ghost. “You too.” 

Relsh went in for a hug that Opal sadly pushed off with a sorrow look in her ice blue eyes. She slowly shook her head, but squeezed Relsh’s forearm instead.

Relsh’s mouth tightened in a goofy way as she placed her hand over Opal’s.

They split and Opal turned back to look at Ray, who had been leaning on the side of the garage, looking busy with his radio in his hands.

“You got any messages for him?” Opal called out to him, sending him a dirty wink. Ray scoffed, not taking his eyes off his machine, and subtly gave her the middle finger. 

Both Ghost and Opal backed up their bikes to turn them around and everyone backed up.

“Good luck guys!” Mauve waved loudly that got him an elbow in the gut from Relsh. 

Ghost gave them a lazy two fingered salute as Opal turned her bike on. They drove away into the forest, Opal looking like a master on the bike next to an obviously uncomfortable Ghost on two wheels. And they disappeared.

Ray was the first to storm off without a word back into the truck, with Relsh close behind making some kind of comment about getting Fern and Cyan up. Noah slouched in with Nyx, Mauve close behind them going on and on about how wonderful and strong Nyx was.

“It was like  _ nothing,  _ like  _ whatever _ , you know?- I keep telling them honey, they should give you a raise!”

Nyx held onto her ribs to stop her chuckling with a tired smirk. “That’s what  _ I’m  _ saying.” 

“Easy…” Noah made her walk slower with him. Mercury made room for them to pass by, and Mauve gave him a fun and goofy look.

“See this??” Mauve waved his hands to gesture Nyx’s injury in front of Mercury. Mercury was a little confused, then looked at her ribs and remembered- 

Him and Nyx shared a moment of eye contact, with guilt dripping off his face. Again, he could tell she was pissed, but not at him, and she still wore that smirk. 

“S-sorry…” Was all that Mercury could choke out, but he saw Noah make a bashful face at him as he noticed the utter wide-eyed look from Nyx.

“Jackass, it’s fine-” She chuckled out with a smile, but instantly winced and leaned in pain. “Shit-.”

“We think it’s brokeny Noahy.” Mauve loudly sang out. 

_ Wow. More annoying than Cyan's whines?  _

Nyx nodded, after rolling her eyes. “I think so-”

“Does it hurt when you breathe?”

Mercury and Noah blushed in shock watching each other as they said the same thing at the same time. 

“What?” Nyx asked.

“Well, yeah…” Noah slowly took his eyes away from Mercury. “You would feel a lot of pain from breathing if it was still fractured- The bones are practically on the lung- Bruises hurt tremendously as well, and they can feel like a break because the bone is so sensitive.”

Nyx nodded, looking a little more reassured. “In that case, I think it’s just a bruise.” She smiled up at Noah, and then at Mercury as a thank-you. Noah also looked at Mercury with the question on his mind.

“Yeah, well-” Mercury tilted his head in thought. “It  _ really  _ hurts like a bitch.”

That seemed to get a smirk out of Noah, and a painful chuckle out of Nyx. Which made Noah continue their walk over to the cockpit faster so he could get a better look at her.

Mercury almost went back to cleaning, but then noticed that Mauve had stayed behind, and would not stop creepily staring at Mercury.

“Hey dude!” Mauve waved as Mercury noticed him. Mercury was put off right away. He could tell this dude was _ trying _ to freak him out.

“Hey… What’s up?” Mercury went back to cleaning, making note not to let Mauve get into his blind spots.

“Hmm? Oh  _ nothing _ .” Mauve danced around Mercury, looking at him with big eyes like he knew all of Mercury’s secrets. “You’ve broken your ribs before?” He ‘innocently’ blinked at Mercury.

Mercury was instantly annoyed, he already missed Ghost…

“Yeah.”

“Oh?  _ When _ ?”

Mercury sighed, he tried to remember when it was… “Maybe last year? Maybe a few weeks ago? I’ve broken quite a few of them.” He remembered a few from missions, and a few from beatings.

Mercury turned into Mauve, who suddenly was right in Mercury’s face. 

“Did they  _ all _ hurt?”

Mercury had to stop himself from punching the guy out of his face, he backed up pissed instead.

“Yeah.” Mercury spat. “ _ Of course  _ they did- _ ”  _

“HMMMMM… That’s  _ so _ weird...” Mauve loudly proclaimed as he looked out at the ceiling, scratching his chest under his rope. “Hey? What’s your semblance?”

Mercury dead panned him. “What-”

Mercury suddenly had to grab Mauve’s wrist as he went in for Mercury’s neck with a skinny knife Mauve quickly pulled out from within his shirt. Mauve pulled forward and their grips shook as they watched each other. Mercury growled, flinching to stop himself from killing this guy as Mauve kept giving him some playful oohs and aahs. 

“What the fuck is-”

“What’s your semblance?” Mauve continued with a grin, but then his expression went dark as he looked into Mercury's eyes. “I just want to know~”

“You piece-” Mercury didn’t care, he was about to destroy this guy- but then someone knocked Mauve off of him.

“Whoa~ Easy!” Mauve sang from the ground, as Relsh leaned over her knees panting after pushing him away.

Mauve whistled. “Sorry, was I  _ that  _ loud?”

Relsh scorned at him and stood up with her hands on her hips. “Almost from the _damn_ cockpit.”

“Whoa!” He got up and put his knife back into his shirt. “That’s impressive-”

“Out.” She demanded, a little too tired to glare again. 

He put up his hands and started walking through. “Alright! Alright! Jeez…” He turned back to Mercury and winked. “We’ll talk later, kay?”

Mercury’s rage would not stop. What the hell was all that? Was that guy  _ really  _ trying to kill him?

“What the fuck is up with that guy-”

Mercury wanted to snap, but the look Relsh had on her face stopped him.

She looked relieved, too much so not to hide it, and she also looked guilty.

“Sorry, he’s… Him…” She said, finally able to catch her breath. Mercury let his hand run through his hair as he sighed. It wasn’t like he could blame her for all that shit, she’s the one who  _ saved _ him! He turned back to thank her, happy that if someone here tried to take his life, the girlfriend of Opal would stop it. But she was already looking at him with a confused look.

“Um...What?” 

“Are you busy later?” She asked him. He looked at her confused but then she continued. “It’s a thing, we’ll do it tomorrow when Nyx is more up for it, but it’s like…” She couldn’t put the words together, and ended up sighing. “I just want you to check it out, you don’t need to stay the whole time.”

Okay. He was even more confused now? She almost looked shy, like she was offering him out on a date, or some drugs, or something like that? She didn’t have any malice, she really just seemed nervous that he would flat out reject her.

“Um, sure?” 

She nodded at him without looking, and started walking out. “And don’t worry about Mauve, Ray and I will handle that.” 

“Oh-” Mercury shook out his confusion. “Thanks- for coming here like that-” He realized something. “Wait- how did you know about all  _ that _ from the cockpit?”

He looked around the room to see if there were any cameras, which there were no _visible_ ones. To his surprise, Relsh genuinely chuckled at him. She stopped her smile to give him a dead panned:

“Secret.” Before she walked out. 

  
  


A few hours later, and the four of them were ready. Ginger however did not look excited, and even Cray seemed to be missing his partner in crime.

“Stop crying and do it.” Opal snapped at Cray, who relentlessly held up a tiny spiral bead from his hand with a sorrow sigh.

“But why can’t it be another bug? I don’t want to lose all my hard work~” 

“Boo-hoo.” Ghost teased. 

“Now make it.” Ginger nodded. 

“But-” Cray dramatically sighed. He had already written down most of the good stuff, but the placements on some of these bugs were  _ priceless _ \- unknown to the truck, he somehow got a few into some of their rooms... He also recorded _ so _ much juicy gossip! But now he would have to trade it all in!

“Just  _ do it _ .” Ginger hissed. Folding his arms and looking out at a house just two hills away from their spot. 

Cray sighed, he relentlessly let his aura seep out of the hand he used to hold the tiny bead. The spiral bead broke from it- and from the dust of the bead, his aura seemed to rebuild the bead. But this time, the shape was different. More circular and flatter, with a bump raised perfectly in the middle of it. Cray then took out his other hand and formed a smaller bead out of his aura that looked the same as the other bead, but maybe half the size. He gave that smaller newer one to Opal as he looked at the bigger bead in his hands and put it up to his eye. 

When he looked into the bead, it was as if he was looking through the solid thing- but the image was not of Opal’s face before him on the other side, but of her shoes instead. 

“Move it around a little.” Cray asked, and as Opal moved the bead in her hands, so did the image of Opal’s feet in the bead.

“Okay~ It’s good!” He sang, he handed Ghost that bead and beamed at Opal. “Ready?”

Opal nodded. She looked over at Ghost and Ginger, who also nodded. And then she looked at Cray. 

“Quietly.”

“But of course~”

“And stick  _ behind  _ me.”

“Yes mam~!” 

Ghost looked down at the bead, her feet a little shaky. She nodded at them as she disappeared. The rest of them waited, and Ginger could have a moment to himself before they started.

Now he really felt stuck here! He couldn’t just leave Opal with both Cray and Ghost- they needed at least someone around to keep everyone safe and even numbered if anything bad happened. He was shocked that Relsh didn’t come, and even more so when Ghost teased him about Ray still holding resentment towards him with stubborn furry. 

Ghost popped back to them in white light and nodded. 

“Okay…” Opal looked at the house, if they were going to sneak in to plant this camera, they needed to do it now that Ghost confirmed the target was still in town. Her and Cray got ready- with Opal thinking it would be  _ so  _ much easier if he didn’t have to plant them himself, or just have Cray giving in _once_ in a while when Opal tried to train him. But enough said, Opal nodded to them and the two ran off, with Ghost keeping a close eye on the bead in her hands with Ginger watching over her shoulder. 

  
  


Back in the garage, Mercury’s hard work had finally paid off. He stepped outside to look back into the big room, finally all clean. Well, it was still an old cluttered garage- but a little more organized with less oil and dust sticking to everything. But the place almost looked brand new, and he hoped he had put everything back to where it was supposed to be. 

“Oh?” Someone called out to him. He turned around to stare at the few out here that were training. Relsh had seen the garage and genuinely looked as if she’d never seen it like that. Fern, who was fighting with her, took a chance to peak over. And of course, Cyan was also there, but it seemed she had been meditating before she opened her eyes. __

“N-nice-” Fern tried to say as Relsh got him from under his feet, however Fern was quick with it, and pulled a little move that gave Relsh an impressed look as he got back into his stance.

“You call  _ that  _ clean?” Cyan called out from her spot on the ground. They had a much larger clearing in the woods since the grim attack. 

Cyan got up from her space to lean a little further and placed a hand as to protect her eyes to really get a good look into the garage. She sighed.

“I’m  _ sure  _ you can do better.”

Mercury just rolled his eyes at her, when she caught the gesture she turned to look at him, giving him the up and down with her finger and a look of disgust. “Well, maybe you  _ can’t _ .”

Mercury looked down, he was totally about to say he was hotter than her at least- but damn he was filthy, she had a point. 

Fern’s back had almost fallen onto the ground- but with surprise, he used it to his upper hand. In shock, Mercury watched Fern as he used the same move Mercury used on him the other day so that he wouldn’t feel Mercury’s metal leg- and it took Relsh off guard, she lost her balance and fell on her ass.

Fern looked scared for his life, but Relsh looked pleased.

“We must tell Opal.” She nodded up at him, and Fern seemed to really shrink from that idea. Relsh didn’t bother to notice as she got up on her feet. “Where did  _ that  _ come from?” She was smiling at him brightly, a sight Mercury had not seen before. It was the first time Fern had  _ ever _ gotten Relsh in sparring! Fern blushed, holding his arms in front of him to stop her praises. 

Mercury couldn’t help but think; he broke another one! Well, he shouldn’t be thinking about it like that, but Relsh! Relsh was  _ finally _ letting him just sit in the background and be herself! He hadn’t even realized it, but he knew this step was the most important part about… 

He thought back to his week with Yang… In such a short time- did he even change at all? But the truth was, the greatest thing he did learn- was how to get people to trust him, genuinely- maybe it was more about him learning to trust others? And if he could do it with Yang, who hated him enough to capture him, and Mercury, hating her for everything she stood for- he could probably do it with anyone? Mercury shook his head and looked up. 

“I-i-it was n-nothing, I-I just-” Fern continued, still too shy from Relsh’s praise. 

“He got it from  _ him _ .” Cyan hissed at Mercury. But Mercury felt too groovy to acknowledge her shit right now, Fern did his move! Fern learned something from Mercury! Relsh was being cool with his presents! He was  _ done  _ cleaning that  _ damn  _ garage!

_ Wait- why am I so excited by all that?? _

Instead of getting angry like Cyan had hoped- Relsh nodded at Mercury, but there was something sad about it in her eyes, even if she tried her hardest to come off as friendly.

“N-n-no, h-he- i-in sparing.” Fern kept waving his hands at Relsh. Who only seemed to get more of a wide eyed look.

She instantly turned her head to Mercury and watched him. Mercury was incidentally freaked out-

_ What- what the fuck does she want?  _ Did he jump the gun on Relsh being cool with him?

But then, and Mercury couldn’t believe- but twice in one day, Relsh directed a smile towards him.

“Let’s spare.” She said to Mercury, with another nod at him as she started stretching her arms.

“ _ What? _ ” Cyan exclaimed. “He’s  _ hardly  _ done with the-”

“It’s the cleanest room on the truck.” Relsh stated blankly.

“Well you’ve never seen  _ my  _ room then!” Cyan huffed.

“ _ T-t-true _ .” Fern nodded. 

Cyan and Relsh exchanged a playful staring contest before Relsh turned back to Mercury and got into position.

“Well?” She asked. 

And suddenly, her toned muscles and strong friendly stare instantly made Mercury want to back out. Sure, they weren’t using any weapons, but that didn’t stop Mercury from imagining how she would split him in half like she did with the nevermore. He had relaxed and almost forgot- this girl was _ no _ normal sparring partner. 

“Umm,” Mercury gestured at Cyan, who was huffing and puffing next to Fern, both eagerly waiting. But Relsh brushed that off, and gave him a look like she saw right through him.

“Scared?”

Mercury jolted. And Cyan let out a powerful laugh.

“Fuck yeah Rel- tell him What’s UP!” Cyan started giggling away. No wonder her and Ghost were so friendly. 

Mercury let his frustration show as Cyan’s loud chuckles annoyed him just enough to get into position and hold up his hand with a:

“Let’s find out?”

They both let out a dark smirk as they went for each other, both deciding to go all out. 

Ten minutes later, Cyan started nudging Fern.

“Do you want to go to the pillow room?” She asked him. “This is kind of boring.”

Fern let himself get dragged by Cyan into the truck as Mercury and Relsh continued their non-stop sparring.

_ How?  _ He questioned, looking at Relsh, both getting tired-  _ Just how? _

He went carefully, going for a hit that she slowly blocked, and she clumsily went for another hit in the same spot-

_ Just how-  _ With frustration, he grabbed her fist, and used it to get her to back off him.

_ How was she  _ _ hardly _ _ better than Fern??? _

Mercury was frustrated, this couldn’t be her actual best- but whenever Mercury tried to kick it up a notch, and give her a look to tell her ‘I can take it’, she wouldn’t respond at all! Was she mocking him? Mercury didn’t want to fight like this all day- they were both taking it _too_ easy.

Mercury decided enough was enough, he kicked it up a notch, and he wouldn’t stop until Relsh did too. Surprisingly, she did as well, she started to get more and more serious- but- but…

_ She was still so clumsy!  _ She was totally just mocking him!

“All right- time out.” Mercury huffed, not hiding his anger at her. “What's all  _ this  _ about?”

Relsh also gave him an angry look. “What?” She exclaimed.

Mercury held out his arms wide. “Okay, I get it- but you don’t have to be so delegate with me, I’m not your average middle-school kid who doesn’t know how to control their aura.” He gestured at the two who left.

Relsh kept looking at him up and down, and then after glaring into his eyes a bit, a light ball went off in her head- she looked almost pleased with herself, but then she looked kind of sad. She put on a bashful look.

“I’m not going easy on you.” She sighed. 

Mercury wouldn’t let her get off like that. “Uh? Yeah you are? I’ve  _ seen  _ what you can do-”

“Listen-” She sighed deeper this time. “-I’ve only been fighting  _ people  _ for a year, I never even  _ sparred  _ with people before that. I'm just good with a sword” She shrugged. “I won’t give you an amazing fight, if _that’s_ what you're looking for.”

“What?” Mercury looked at her up and down, still not buying it. “How  _ did _ you learn to fight then?” Where he comes from, people earn the right to wield a weapon, and they train for years before they could even own one. Heck, he was sure that’s how it worked mostly everywhere. 

Relsh shrugged. “I just picked up a sword- but if my opponent is a living being, with intelligent thought that could out-strategize me like people do? Yeah, only got a year of training for _that_.”

Mercury looked at her stunned. He pictured the scene of Relsh and the nevermore, who never held a chance to Relsh- but Relsh, who could probably get beaten by a large robber if they caught her without her sword. 

_ What? That makes no sense though? That's so weird... _

He looked back at her, a little upset that he kind of snapped. She looked embarrassed almost. He didn’t mean to accuse her of anything, but he just never met someone like that. But if he really had to guess, there wouldn’t be a lot of normal people who would learn to fight people when grim were out there. But… In this world, people were the easier target, and everyone was out for themselves to try and survive in this cruel infected world. It would be easier for anyone else to go for other weaker humans and take what was lost from them than try to defend what they want to keep from grim. He didn’t expect many to take  _ that _ route. 

“Oh.” Mercury exclaimed.

“Yeah.” Relsh nodded back. Looking away a bit.

Mercury sighed and got back into position. “So- keep going?” He figured he could at _least_ get her up to speed.

Relsh nodded to him emotionlessly, but her eyes seemed to hold a smile.

They started going back at it, with Mercury wanting to unleash the tension.

“Who do I have to go to for an amazing fight then?” He gave her a jab of the elbow, that she twisted and pushed back.

“That-” She smirked, he held her next attack and she looked him in the eyes as they were both in hold. “-You would have to go to Opal.”

They went on like that for two hours, Mercury making sure to loudly show her where her weak points were, and Relsh not holding back in her powerful hits back at him. Mercury was almost glad she didn’t know how to probably throw a punch.

Somehow, as they both walked in for dinner, they couldn’t stop talking. Mercury didn’t know how, but it turned out the silent and shy Relsh had the same type of dark humor he did. 

“People starve if they are hungry.” She blandly stated.

“ _ So  _ true.” He exclaimed.

He did have to take notice that Relsh, who since he came, had always taken him through the long way under in the walkways, but today had gone through the faster path down the main hallway after the engine room for a bit. He would drop it, as it seemed whenever Mercury wondered about it, Relsh would pick up on it and give him a silent stare.

They walked into the cockpit, and the familiar scene of everyone at the table was still the same but very different.

Of course Floyd was not there, and Opal’s presents wasn’t too missed- but things seemed not as light at the kitchen table with Nyx and Mauve. 

Mauve and Nyx were sitting there with Ray, the three of them laughing over something, all three drinking small cups with a flask in front of them. Noah was cooking as usual, and Fern and Cyan seemed to be in their own little chats at the table. Mercury’s mood dropped as he looked at Mauve, who gave him a lazy but haunting smile.

“No! Down dog-” Ray laughed, which  _ really  _ put Mercury off, as Ray slapped at Mauve’s face. 

Nyx’s fun mood went down at this, as she actually gave Mauve a warning glare as she sipped her drink.

Noah and Fern’s look over at Mercury let him know that  _ everyone  _ knew what happened between him and Mauve today. Mauve didn’t seem to mind, and almost looked like he loved the attention.

“Oh stop it, I was just trying to be friendly.” Mauve smiled at Mercury and it almost gave him chills. Mercury followed Relsh to the table to sit down, trying to think of a good way to lock his door tonight.

“Don’t worry about  _ him _ .” Ray dizzily waved his head around, and Mercury knew he _had_ to be drunk. “He  _ just  _ wants to ask you some  _ questions  _ cause you’re- you  _ know _ , a quite asshole on the run by  _ something _ big-”

“Hey- Nyx? How’s your ribs-” Noah tried to interject. 

“Yeah, jee Mero- Stop giving me that look.” Mauve picked up his cup and looked at Mercury with wide eyes. “Drink with us, come on!”

“ _ Ray _ .” Relsh also talked over Mauve’s comments. “You’re out of it- you were suppose to be ready-”

“They already called, it’s dropped.” Noah said for Ray, and Ray looked over at Relsh with a dizzy smug. 

Relsh looked at Ray up and down, with a little smirk. “ _ Still… _ ” She looked at Mauve and raised her eyebrows at him and at his flask. He shrugged her off, and Nyx stared at Relsh with a look to say it doesn’t matter.

Relsh looked over at Noah. “Anything else?”

Noah sighed in as Ray loudly clicked his teeth and Nyx groaned.

“They  _ know-  _ They got it- the accountant’s little  _ fucking  _ secret.” Ray sighed out. 

Noah shook his head. “That’s not what they said, we still need time to figure it out-”

Ray slammed his drink on the table that made Fern jump, Noah turn around, and Cyan just looked amused with Nyx. Relsh and Mauve paid him no mind.

“She’s- such a little  _ sneaky  _ bitch!” Ray cried out about the target, drinking the rest of his cup.

“Don’t be like that-” Noah started.

“Why? What’s she got?” Relsh asked. And Mauve and Nyx smirked at each other.

Noah sighed as Ray screamed out loud: “A fucking  _ time-shifter _ .”

Mercury was taken aback with Relsh as Mauve and Nyx laughed at Ray’s drunken misery. 

“You should bring me!” Cyan huffed. “I would get that done in a  _ second _ !” 

“It’s…” Noah chuckled as he watched Ray, sad that he couldn’t just let Ray explain it, he wanted nothing to do with letting the youngest people on board know what was going on. “... It’s not that simple, we should get a better idea of her power before jumping in.”

“ _ If  _ Roman Tourchwick  _ couldn’t  _ trap her-” Ray sighed out loud, dipping his cup upside down over his eyes to check if it was _really_ empty. “- _ how _ the  _ hell  _ are  _ we _ -”

“We’ll find a way.” Relsh emotionlessly nodded at him, grabbing his cup and taking the flask to fill it up again, this time taking a sip and setting the drink in front of her. “Mercury cleaned the garage.” Relsh said out to them. Nyx just nodded and Cyan rolled her eyes as Fern got up to help Noah with the dish. 

“Oh  _ yeah _ ?” Ray drunkenly looked at Mercury up and down. Mercury looked over at Relsh, wondering what she was trying to pull? 

The rest of the table seemed to quietly watch Ray, waiting for his reply. Ray noticed it right after Mercury did, and Ray let out a little puff, looking at Mercury up and down again.

“You’re fucking  _ filthy. _ ” Ray barked at Mercury, who couldn’t hold back a genuine small gasp of surprise at that. Cyan started laughing.

Mercury snapped. “Yeah, I was cleaning your damn-”

“ _ Do  _ you have any other clothes?” Ray continued with his drunk stare.

Cyan roared with giggles and Nyx had to join her, but with a much more calm chuckling. 

Mercury rolled his eyes annoyed. “ _ No _ \- This is all I got-”

Ray dead panned him. “Get more clothes.”

The table around was mainly laughing at Ray’s tired drunk mocking, but it still frustrated Mercury. “I  _ can’t,  _ I  _ gave  _ you all my Lien!”

Ray giggled at this, then went back to serious not even realizing his mood was changing in such a non-sober state. “That’s fucking  _ bull _ \- Change that.”

And the whole room laughed at that. Mercury threw his hands up in the air at Ray.

“How?  _ How? _ ” He answered both questions. Ray hiccupped.

“ _ People _ are after yous…” Ray spun his head around- this guy could not carry his liquor. “Get somethin’s elses on.”

Again, laughter at Ray and now at Mercury who had to deal with it. “HOW?” He wailed his arms up in defeat. 

Noah turned around to give Mercury a smug grin and a nod, looking back down at Ray with high eyebrow as Ray said:

“Ya probably need to start working then.” Ray stated, looking at Mercury’s clothes in disgust.

  
  
  
  


A man walks on a path towards Mistal as the night comes. He’s heard from a town back the other way that the boy he's after was seen on a bike heading down this path. The tall man looked at the forested rode ahead. There was little chance of his target heading back to Mistral, as none of it made any since. Maybe this was the way he took to get to his shack in the middle of nowhere- which meant that Hazel had gone in a big circle? The man sighed, he looked at the side of the road where a little bit of an opening was. He could hear a tiny broke nearby as he saw that there was an oil stain in the grass and a tree that was spitted on the side. Something had happened on the side of this path, and as much as Hazel wanted to wave it off to grim, he couldn’t ignore the very human representation of the fight that might have taken place here. Hazel ignored the scene of the hostile road-side situation and looked forward. Sure his target would not go this way as he kept walking down it anyway. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The group's mission so far is going smoothly, but an over powered semblance and two cups of liquor make the grump stubborn Ray actually consider letting Mercury join, mainly to let him in on the share of Lien to get him a much needed wardrobe change. Meanwhile, Mercury's relationship with Mauve, which seemed like it would be the easiest to create at the start, might be the most difficult human thing for Mercury to accomplish yet- unsure of Mauve's plans and what he wants out of Mercury.  
> Meanwhile, somewhere up a tree, maybe a bush, or inside the depths of the lakes, could Floyd be there? We can't find him...

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I told people I might make a story out of some Ocs from the last fic, and now I want to really dive into them and their lives. I feel like its a side of the world we never get to see in RWBY, the other kids who just didn't have the resource to live and fight in the capital, who didn't grow up with love, what are their lives like in this world? I love that in vol 7 and 8 we get more into the world with Mantel and what normal people with powers would do in those situations, like fighting for Robin. But what about the other messed up teens that Salem didn't want in her posse? I am so excited to get into it.  
> Basically, this is an OC story to dive into the world with a character developing Mercury. If that's not your cup of tea, run.


End file.
